Come Together
by waterangelphoenix
Summary: Ash and Misty are getting married! As they prepare themselves during the months before the wedding, their lives get a bit hectic. I suck at summaries, but it's a really sweet story!
1. Chapter 1: Who You Gonna Call?

Hello everyone! After reading and planning for a while I finally decided to post some chapters of this new story I've been writing. It's suppose to take place after my first story To Be With You but it's technically not the sequel to it. I just thought it would be fun to write something that doesn't involve a fight to the death with pokemon. Anyway this story and a couple of others are still works in progress, so if you guys have any ideas they will be appreciated. All criticism welcome!

Happy reading!

* * *

Chapter 1: Who You Gonna Call?

It had been a few days since Ash had asked Misty to marry him, and now that she had said yes, the next thing to do would be to call everyone to tell them the good news. And then came the problem.

"Well, obviously people that we tell are the ones who are obviously invited right, so who should we tell first?" Misty asked.

"Hmm…well our main friends are out of the way…and mom already knows. Hey did you tell your sisters yet?" Ash said.

"My sisters?" She flinched at the thought of telling them anything. "Can't we wait a little while to tell them?"

"Wait? Why? And for how long?"

"Well, a few weeks before the wedding would be nice…" Misty said, as she folded her arms and sat down on the living room couch next to him.

Ash laughed, "Are you serious? C'mon Misty, you know you have to tell them."

"Ash! If I tell them they would want to take over everything!" She whined. "I bet Lily would want to make some kind of underwater show to go with it all."

"An underwater show huh? That sounds like fun, but it would be hard to kiss."

Misty narrowed her eyes.

"Hey, maybe you'll get to dress up as a mermaid in a wedding dress! That would be cool!" Ash's eyes danced with excitement.

Misty tried her best to control her anger, but she was so close to bringing out her trusty mallet on the unsuspecting Ash.

Ash finally noticed it fortunately, "Hey, you are serious aren't you? You really don't want them to know about our wedding?"

Misty sighed. "I don't know. They had teased me for all my life and I don't really think they deserve to come."

"C'mon Misty, if I could invite Gary after all the stuff we've been through, then you got to invite your sisters, especially since there's only two of them left."

She looked down at her shoes. She would feel a bit bad if Lily and Daisy weren't there to see her get married, but…pride was always a hard thing for her to swallow.

"Fine, I guess it won't hurt to mention it to them."

"Alright! We got that settled, now let's see who would be next…hey, maybe Melody can come!"

That was promptly answered by a mallet to the head.

"Well…I guess that's settled too…" Ash murmured as he was flinching on the ground.

Pikachu sighed next to him. "Pikachu…" (Idiot…)

* * *

"Let's see who else to invite…" Misty whispered as she tapped her pencil on a sheet of notebook paper. She had pretty much had wrote the names down of everyone she could think of, even names of people she hadn't seen in years, but was still stricken with the guilt of forgetting someone.

"What are you up to dear?" Delia asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Well I was thinking of people to invite for our wedding…but I think I ran out of people…" she sighed.

Delia picked up the paper and began to giggle. "Sweetheart this is only about twenty people!"

"Well, I figure I would start with family first, but we're all so spread out that it would be hard to reach them all. Besides, I'm going to invite all of Cerulean and that should be plenty, but don't worry I'm sure they won't all come." Misty laughed.

"Ah, that sounds like our family," Delia smiled, "Luckily for us I already invited plenty of people. Oh and speaking of people, I've set up some connections and fixed it so you two would be able to marry in the church on the far east side of Pallet! Ash knows where it is, but tomorrow I'll take you both there to see it. It's the perfect place for a big wedding."

"Well I'm sure as long as there's food Ash would be happy anywhere," Misty said.

"I heard that!" Ash said from the back door. He had just walked in on the conversation after a long day of training with Pikachu and a few other pokemon.

"Well it's true," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Well at least I don't eat like a Munchlax when I eat," Ash retaliated.

"Yeah, you eat like a Snorlax! Then you go straight to sleep just like one too," Misty laughed.

"Well, I'm glad we're having this discussion about food," Delia giggled, "You know the classic wedding dinner is chicken, steak, or fish."

"Fish is definitely out since little Corsola here is a water lover," Ash stuck his tongue out at her.

"We can decide that later," Misty said. "Now I just have to call my sisters and ask them to come."

"You really need to quit putting it off Mist."

"Yeah, yeah," she murmured inching her way closer to the videophone. As she dialed the number she was a bit nervous, but Ash was there with a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"Hello?" A young blonde woman answered.

"Daisy!" Misty yelled. She was a bit relieved to see her, since she always felt she had more of a connection with Daisy instead of Lily.

"Oh, like, hey there you are! Just when we were starting to get worried about you! Lily get over here, Misty is on the phone!"

A few seconds later another young woman appeared her long pink hair in tight curls. "Hiya Ash!" She waved to him and neglected Misty completely.

"Uh, heh, hey Lily…" Ash waved back reluctantly, once again feeling his fiancée's jealousy.

_She does that just to piss me off! Just because she has a crush on Ash doesn't mean she has to flaunt it in my face all the time! _Misty eventually swallowed her anger and began to speak again.

"I'm sorry I didn't call you guys earlier…I've been a bit busy over here," she said calmly.

"Like, when are you coming back little sis? I just met this guy and he wants to take me back with him to Hoenn!" Lily said in a childish voice. Even though she wasn't the youngest anymore she still acted like it from time to time.

"Wait, wait, you _just_ met a guy and you're leaving for Hoenn with him?!" Ash butted in.

"Oh don't worry Ashy-poo, I'll bring you back a postcard!" She smiled and winked at him.

Misty clinched her fist again in efforts to re-control her anger. _Ashy-poo?!_

Daisy finally cut Misty off from saying something and asked, "Anyway, that is a good question, when are you coming home? We've been a bit worried, and trainers are starting to come back to the gym for badges again."

Misty sighed, "You haven't been giving out any badges have you?"

"No way, I battled them, but I'm not as good as you," Daisy giggled. "Besides that we miss you."

"Don't worry, I should be home tomorrow, I just wanted to hang around Ash a bit longer," Misty smiled.

Ash was tired of all the small talk and was unable to hold back the good news. "Oh, enough of this, Lily, Daisy, your sister and I are now engaged!"

This certainly put a halt to the random chit chat. "E-engaged?!" Lily stuttered.

"That's right, engaged, so I'm afraid your little 'Ashy-poo'—wait what am I talking about—he isn't your 'Ashy-poo'!" Misty yelled.

"Uhm, could we possibly come up with a better name besides that? I feel like I'm at the butt of a dirty joke," Ash murmured.

"Oh, Ash, Misty, I'm so happy for you two! Congratulations! Looks like we've got something else to celebrate now, right Lily?" Daisy turned to see Lily nod and smile happily.

"What do you mean?" Misty asked.

"That's another reason we wanted you to hurry and get home. See we got a letter today from Violet and she says that she's happily staying somewhere off in southeast Unova!"

"Violet?!" Misty and Ash blurted this out loud in shock.

"Are you serious?" Ash asked.

"Dead serious," Daisy continued, "She said she's doing fine, she found a boyfriend out of all things, and she'll be coming home in a few months! I thought that was the best news we heard all day, but apparently we were wrong!"

Misty stood there in absolute shock, unable to believe that this would be the news to stop her verbal rampage.

_Violet's…coming home? _


	2. Chapter 2: Is This The Right Place?

Hi guys, sorry this chapter is a bit short but this is supposed to be a short story anyway. I'll upload another chapter later today. In case some of you haven't read my first story and are a bit confused, I'll clear a few things up. Violet left because of a fight she had with Misty over the ownership of the gym. Misty was legally the owner but Violet opposed, thinking that she could be the better leader. Anyway here we are a year later and she's coming back! But that won't be for a while yet so until then enjoy this chapter about wedding planning. Take in mind that I know nothing about weddings, so I might skip a few steps as the story continues.

Enjoy!

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Chapter 2: Is This the Right Place?

"Wow this church looks beautiful!" Misty said excitedly.

Delia, Misty and Ash were all standing in front of the gorgeous white church that they were hoping to get married in. It was an old Victorian style church that was obviously built years ago. It was a bit smaller than the normal sized church from that era, but it fit well with the small town. The white brick was a bit faded, but the carving of an angel on the front of the building could still be made out. The roof was a mixture of brick and wood, which had a slight shade of grey to it. There was a very tall steeple, adorned with a big white cross at the top of it. There were two long windows on either side of the long wooden door, and there were also many smaller windows around every part of the outside, from long and skinny to small and circular.

"Well, that's just the outside, let's go in!" Delia exclaimed happily and led the way.

The inside however…

"W-what is this?" Misty said in shock.

Delia laughed nervously, "Yes, well it's a bit dusty…"

"Dusty?" Ash said, "The floor looks like it hasn't been swept in years!"

The floor was dusty, and so were some other parts of the church, but other than that the gothic-style interior still stood strong. There were carvings of angels in every corner, and there was a long walkway leading to the center. Every window had been redone with stained glass, showing either a historic picture of the town's history or a figure representation from the bible. The arches at the ceiling beautifully hid the fact that the roof came to a point at the top.

"Wow, would you look at that, there are even windows in the ceiling!" Misty said.

"This was an old church of ours that the town used to use all the time. I used to come here a lot when I was a kid. It was weird, I would always get lost!" Ash said.

"I bet this place would be great once it's cleaned up, and the outside certainly fools you into thinking that this is a small church," Misty looked around still in awe.

"Oh, it's only small if you look at it from the front," Delia mentioned, "Walk around the side and you could tell easily."

"So what do you think Misty, do you want to have it here?" Ash asked.

"Of course I do! A girl could only dream of getting married in a church like this!" Misty replied happily.

"Well, pretty soon it will be a reality. Mom and I are going to work hard to clean this place up, and don't worry my pokemon will help, right Pikachu?"

Pikachu had been darting around from pew to pew but its affirmative cry could still be heard.

Misty laughed. "Well, I guess we have nothing to worry about on finding a place."

* * *

"What do you mean you already found a place?!" Daisy cried.

"Yeah, Ash and I looked at it this morning. It's perfect and so beautiful, I swear Daisy you've never seen anything like it!" Misty said.

"No way! Daisy and I already picked out the perfect place for you!" Lily interrupted.

"You guys found a place? Where?" Misty asked.

"Cerulean Cape!" They both said.

"It's perfect for you and Ash, an outdoor wedding!" Lily jumped up and down.

"An outdoor wedding at Cerulean Cape? Come on you guys that's so obvious, that place is where everyone gets married," Misty frowned.

"Yes but this would be so different! We were thinking that we could have an underwater show to go with it! Our pokemon would be perfect in their bow ties and dresses, and we could have them jump around and do tricks!" Lily yelled.

"I wonder how much we would have to charge to get them to see it," Daisy murmured.

"Wait, wait, you guys are going to make people_ pay_ to come to my wedding?" Misty could feel her anger rising again.

"Well, we do need money little sis, the bills are piling up and this would be perfect! Oh, do you think you could wear your mermaid costume under your wedding dress?" Lily smiled, unable to realize how close she was from getting slapped.

"I can't believe this! I'm getting married and you're turning it into a show!" Misty yelled.

"Well, you only get married once, might as well make people want to pay to see it!" Lily clasped her hands together.

Misty could have done so many things at that moment, but she wacked her forehead with her hand and mumbled cuss words under her breath.

"C'mon Misty even you have to admit it's a perfect opportunity! Oh and we could get Ash a special suit that doesn't shrink in water! And we could create this whole story about how you get kidnapped and Ash has to come and rescue you, and…Misty?" Lily was interrupted once again, but by Misty's sudden departure.

"Wait, when did she leave?" she asked.

"Right when you had closed your eyes and went off into dream land…" Daisy said tiredly. "I think she realizes it might be a while before you come back to reality with us."

"Huh?"

"Exactly." Daisy laughed.

Meanwhile an exasperated and worn out Misty said to herself: "What's the point of telling them anything…"

* * *

Again get used to short chapters. This story will probably be at least ten chapters and then we can move on to the real fun! Oh and if any of you guys know anything about weddings your comments are encouraged! Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3: Time To Eat!

Hello everyone! I'm back with another short chapter! At least you don't have to waste too much time reading it right? But I'm pretty much going through the motions of planning a wedding, and it is really hard. Is this how marrage is in real life? I would be too lazy to think. Oh I should mention that this story is in sequential order, but each chapter pretty much takes place a few months apart from the last chapter. In other words, this chapter takes place around two or three months after chapter 2, and so on and so forth. Ha ha ha well enough of me, enjoy!

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Chapter 3: Time to Eat!

"Yes food!" Ash said excitedly.

"You're just lucky I know how to cook, Ketchum," Misty replied. Unfortunately Ash's chewing blocked out every word.

Ash was spending a month with Misty at her gym, determined to keep her company while her sisters were off on another trip to Johto. Misty saw it as a true test of determining whether she and Ash could actually live together alone. Ash on the other hand, just wanted to battle, eat, and sleep—and not exactly in that order. Nevertheless, Misty loved every moment she spent with her beloved fiancé and figured even pokemon masters and gym leaders shouldn't take days off from training just because they were planning a wedding.

"Ash since we're eating, don't you think we should talk about what to serve at our wedding?" Misty asked.

"As long as it's your cooking, I could care less what it is!"

Misty blushed a little but then realized exactly what he said. "Wait a second there's no way I'm cooking for over a hundred people!"

"There's that many coming?" Ash asked.

"Who cares I'm still not cooking. I can barely fill your appetite let alone someone else's."

"Maybe you're right," he mumbled as he bit into a chicken leg, "But I really like it when you cook, Misty, it makes me feel…like I'm really at home with you…"

"Don't tell me you're marrying me for my ability to cook," Misty folded her arms and looked away, still fighting an embarrassed blush.

"Of course not, I just meant—"

"I know," she smiled, "It does feel weird cooking for you, but I like it when I do." She gave Pikachu a small piece of meat, which became covered with ketchup in a matter of seconds.

Ash smiled. "Did I ever tell you that your smile could light up a room?"

"Yes, now you should get to the point, what do you want this time?"

"What, I can't compliment you without wanting something?"

"I know that compliment, Ketchum," Misty narrowed her eyes at him. "Spill it."

Ash sighed. "I don't want to cook for the wedding!"

"Huh?"

"Brock says I might have to cook! Misty you know I'm good but I'm not great, if you can't cook for a hundred people than neither can I!"

Misty laughed. "I think you've been tricked. Ash, you're suppose to hire a caterer to plan food for a wedding. You don't have to cook anything."

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness!" He said. Misty could only laugh.

"Hey that's not fair; I really thought I had to cook!" Ash explained, but Misty couldn't do anything but laugh.

* * *

The next day, Brock had called the gym with some good news.

"What, you found us a caterer?!" Misty exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's a friend of mine who just started catering about a year ago. I had met him at school, and when I told him that I was friends with you two and that you guys were getting married, he insisted on being the caterer. So I was wondering if you would give him a chance for me."

"Well, I have to see what Ash thinks…"

Before Misty had a chance to ask however, Ash had already heard everything and came over excitedly to the phone.

"Hey, Brock, do you think he can cook baked chicken?"

"Ha ha, he's not a chief, Ash, he's just gets food together," Brock laughed.

"Well if he gets baked chicken he's in," Ash said.

"What's with you and chicken? I swear Brock he's been talking about chicken for the past two days," Misty sighed.

"Misty had fixed this chicken sliced up in pasta and put cheese on it…what was it called again?"

"Chicken fettuccini and I was trying out a recipe I saw online," Misty answered.

"Well it was awesome I definitely want it at the wedding!"

Misty laughed. "You're a weird one alright. Why am I marrying you again?"

"Because you cook like an angel and I love it!" He kissed her cheek.

"Well I guess that's that then, you guys have yourself a caterer," Brock said.

"Thanks so much Brock!" Ash and Misty said together.

"No problem, I'm just glad I could help Ash with his chicken addiction."

Misty and Brock laughed while Ash pouted like a little kid. "I can't help it, when it comes to food no one likes it like I do!" He exclaimed happily.

"You can say that again," Misty said, softly smiling at him.

"Ha, you're going to have a hard time filling up Ash's appetite Misty. Hope you're up for it," Brock laughed.

"Don't worry Brock, I rather cook for him than my sisters, since Ash never complains about what I'm cooking for him."

"Yeah, more chicken!" Ash yelled.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Enough with the chicken! I swear I'm going to throw you in the pool."

Brock laughed. "Well guys I'm off, I have another class soon."

"See you later Brock!" Ash and Misty waved goodbye.

* * *

Once again just in case you haven't read my other story here's the story on Brock: He has decided to go to school to become a pokemon breeder _and_ a pokemon doctor. Yep, he's going to be in school for a while...I know how you feel man! Anyway on with the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: Unexpected Circumstances

Before I go off into the sunset to take a Biochemistry final I realized I couldn't leave without posting another chapter. There's nothing really to explain about this one actually so I'll let you read while I run away.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4: Unexpected Circumstances

Due to the fact that the bills for the gym were indeed piling up, and since Lily's grand idea was shut down, Misty had no choice but to get an extra job in order to support herself and the gym. Luckily for her, a restaurant down the street from where she lived had given her a job, where she worked as both a waitress and a cook when needed. Unfortunately Ash was missing his favorite red-head dearly.

"Hiya Ash!" Lily had waved to him from the videophone.

"Uh, hi Lily," he couldn't help but blush a little at her, but then realized the reason was because she reminded him a lot of Misty. "Hey, is Misty there? I want to tell her something."

"Oh sorry Ash, she's working late again at the Marina Serena, but she should be here in a couple of hours."

"A couple of hours…" Ash sighed. He hated that she worked nights. "It's after 9pm, isn't it closing time?"

"Usually, but there was a big party there tonight. She probably had to work double duty, but don't worry Daisy went down there to walk her home."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Well I'm so happy to say that soon she wouldn't have to work anymore."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, I got a job too! Pallet is planning on building a small mall downtown and I'm going to help build it. With the amount I'm making she won't have to work much at all! Isn't that great?" Ash said excitedly.

"You mean…you're going to be a construction worker?"

"It's only part-time, and only for a few months, but the pay is nice and it will help us a lot. No way my Misty is going to be the only breadwinner of our house! I'm the man and I'm suppose to look out for her!"

"A construction worker huh?" Lily murmured, picturing Ash in a hard hat and a sweaty shirt working under the hot sun. "Mmmmmm…I wouldn't mind that at all," she giggled.

"Uh, Lily? Are you ok?" Ash asked.

Lily nodded, her face turning red, "Oh yes Ash I'm just peachy." She laughed again, "Say Ash, when you come by, can you stay in your work clothes?"

"Why would I do that?" Ash was clueless on what Lily was thinking.

"I would love to make some fresh lemonade for such a strong hard worker like you…"

"I heard that Lily!" A voice yelled from the background.

"Misty!" Ash smiled. "There you are!"

Misty came forward—tired, sweaty, and nearly covered in food and grease. "Lily, quit hitting on Ash!"

"What are you talking about little sister?" Lily tried to look as innocent as possible.

"You can't fool me, you we thinking something dirty weren't you?"

"She was?" Ash asked.

"Oh fine, excuse me for having a little fun. I'll see you around, Ashy darling," Lily laughed again as Misty yanked her from the phone.

"Misty, I was just telling Lily about how I got a job—"

"I know I heard everything," Misty interrupted, "Are you sure you'll be willing to handle that? It seems a lot harder than my job."

"Look, Misty you are working hard for your gym so why can't I work hard for you? Besides, mom and I are almost done with the repairs to the church and since she's paying for the whole wedding, I wanted to pay her back at least half."

"But what about your training?" she asked.

Ash flashed a bright smile. "Don't worry Misty, I'll always have time to train, since it's only part-time. Besides, if I need a little help I can use my pokemon to lift stuff if needed. So see it's like training within training! And for my pokemon to be at their best then I also have to be at my best too, so don't worry I'll be just fine."

Misty furrowed her eyebrows in worry before she finally smiled. "Well alright as long as you think it's right."

"Of course it is! Now you should go and get cleaned up, you don't look so good."

She shook her fist at him, "I always look good, Ketchum!" She then smiled and stuck out her tongue, "You're lucky I love you."

"I love you too, Mist. Take care."

* * *

A few days later Misty had gotten another unexpected call.

"What? Are you serious?!" she yelled in shock.

"I'm afraid so," May said sadly over the phone. "The grand festival in Johto starts on the same day as your wedding."

"No way…" Misty whispered. "Talk about a bad coincidence."

"You can say that again. I don't want you two to worry though, I'm still planning on coming to your wedding. Drew hasn't really said anything about it, however," she said this with a bit of resentment in her voice. Misty didn't know that May and Drew had been arguing for a while over the right thing to do.

Misty shook her head. "May, you don't have to change your plans at all. We could always move the wedding back a couple of days."

"No way! You don't have to do that, Misty, after all a wedding is a joyous occasion!"

"And the grand festival is even more joyous," Misty answered back. "Besides, I'm sure that even though he's not here, Ash would also agree that the grand festival is way more important than the wedding."

"Are you sure about that?" May raised an eyebrow. "I see the way he looks at you, sometimes it seems like he's going to devour you at any moment!" she giggled.

Misty laughed. "Oh May I'm serious, in our eyes, Ash and I are already married we just have to make it official. I'm sure it will be ok to put that on hold for a few days while you and your pokemon win the grand festival! And to make sure we mean it, me and Ash are going to try our hardest to be there to cheer you on!"

"Wow that would be so awesome! I would love for you and Ash to cheer me on to victory!" she happily pumped her fist into the air.

"You mean cheer _me_ on to victory," Drew said from behind her.

"Ah! Drew you startled me!" May scowled at him.

"Hmph, you already talk about winning the grand festival, when you haven't even earned your fifth ribbon yet. You do realize the competition is less than three months away and that there's only two contests left right?" he said.

"Oh shut up, I can win the fifth ribbon easy! Quit showing off just because you have all your ribbons already!"

"You always were slow to the punch, May, I'm just trying to encourage you a bit."

"You call making fun of me in front of Misty encouraging?" May yelled.

"No, I call it firing up, and besides you are always cute when you're angry." Drew smiled.

His smile caused May to become flustered, "Why you—you—"

"Ahem," Misty interrupted, "If you two are done flirting be sure to know that the wedding has been moved back, and although I'm not a real big fan of pokemon contests, it would be nice to see one."

"Then you should definitely come to the grand festival and watch me win," May said confidently.

"If you can get past the preliminary rounds," Drew taunted.

"I'll do way more than that Drew, just watch me!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Oh brother," Misty sighed. "I'll talk to you two later, I have a challenger coming soon."

* * *

This one is a little longer so I'm happy about that. If luck is on my side I might have another chapter up later tonight. Until next time, happy readers!


	5. Chapter 5: The Best of the Best

Well like I said, I was able to add another chapter. Sadly I still have some work to do with this story, so it's going to be a bit before chapter six can go up. But hopefully this chapter would be enough to tide you over until then!

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5: The Best of the Best

"Hmm…" Misty tapped her pencil on a piece of paper. She had come into her office to get away from Lily and her ideas on creating an underwater show for the wedding, and to do some paperwork she needed to catch up on, but there was one question that plagued her mind and prevented her from getting any work done.

"Hey Misty!" Ash came bursting in the room, with a very happy look on his face.

"Ack, Ash! Don't scare me like that!" Misty yelled.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you doing something sexy?"

"W-what?!"

"Well Brock says that when women need to be alone they always go in their room, close the door, take off some clothes and—"

"Ash Ketchum!" Misty yelled, her face never looked so red, "Remind me to punch Brock in the face next time I see him! And for your information I wasn't doing anything except working!"

Ash kept his innocent face but was a little scared to speak. "S-so…y-you weren't—"

"No! Don't listen to everything that pervert says! He's just trying to get you in trouble."

"Oh…" Ash didn't know whether to be relieved or a bit disappointed. "So what were you doing in here?"

"I told you, working, but I can't seem to get started sadly…" Misty actually managed to calm down quickly, and was a bit surprised, but she guessed she was too occupied with her situation to think about Ash and his ignorance.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Well…I was just thinking who I should choose as my maid of honor."

"Oh…" He cast his eyes down in thought. "That is a bit of a problem for you huh?"

"You had it easy. You chose Brock as your best man, although now I'm starting to regret that decision, but as for me I have to choose either Dawn or May and they are both good friends to me…"

"I think you should choose one of your sisters instead Mist," Ash suggested.

"What?"

"Well think about it you always wanted to be close to them and what better way to do that than to ask one of them to be your maid of honor! I think it's perfect if you want to bond."

"Oh yeah sure so the one I don't pick will hate me forever, yeah that's a good plan," Misty murmured sarcastically.

"Well I thought it would be better than having your two best friends fighting over it, don't you think so?" Ash asked.

"Well I suppose…so who do you think then, Lily or Daisy?"

"Well I would choose Lily."

"Lily?" Misty repeated.

"Well yeah, since you're already close with Daisy, why not choose Lily and get closer with her."

"Hmmm…so that's four people I have to choose from now…" Misty sighed.

"I'm sure you will come to the right decision eventually," Ash encouraged. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot to tell you the reason I came in here!"

"Which was?"

"You have a challenger waiting for you!"

"Ash! We've been talking for like ten minutes and _now_ you decide to tell me!" Misty yelled again.

"Well you looked sad and I wanted to make my little Corsola happy!" Ash laughed.

"Oh shut up…" Misty said, quickly walking out of the room and taking her pokeballs with her.

"Hey wait! I wanted to watch!" Ash yelled as he ran after her.

* * *

"Hmm…a maid of honor huh?" Brock said.

After asking Ash for advice on her current situation she wanted to get one last opinion.

"Ash says that I should pick Lily in order to get closer to her, but for some reason I'm actually leaning towards May or Dawn. I never really felt as close to my sisters as I should be, I mean I love them but I don't know if I should actually ask one of them."

"Well I think what Ash says is actually a good idea. I mean I know you should obviously ask someone you're close to, but this would be a good opportunity for you and your sisters to really bond, you know? Besides," Brock replied with a goofy look, "I think you should ask the most beautiful and that would definitely be Daisy."

"Oh please! You want me to pick Daisy so _you_ can get close to her!"

"Well, why not? That is the day of romance you know and I need a date for the wedding! I could give her the old Brock charm…" he wiggled his eyebrows and began to dance a little with maracas in his hands. "Come on, Misty, wouldn't you want this?" He put a rose in his mouth and started to pretend he was grinding on a woman. "Admit it!"

Misty's eyes narrowed, "I should really keep Ash away from you," she sighed. "Stop dancing Brock! You're not sexy!"

Brock's dreams shattered in an instant and he sat back down in his seat depressed. "Fine, fine, listen Misty just follow your heart and do what you think is right ok?" Then his face shot back up like a rocket and he sported a huge smile, "Hey, do you think Daisy would like it, if I danced the tango with her at the wedding?"

"She would I guess, as long as her date doesn't kill you first," she giggled. "See you around Brock."

After she ended the call she smiled to herself. "Hated to lie to him like that, but I bet even Daisy would thank me for that one."

* * *

"Hmmm…" Lily thought out loud, "Me as the maid of honor huh?"

"Yes," Misty smiled as a small blush came upon her cheeks. "I would like it if you would be my maid of honor. So what do say?"

Lily thought for a moment, and then said, "No thanks."

Misty was in shock. "What do you mean no thanks?!"

"Misty, hello, I'm the wedding planner! I can't be your maid of honor! Besides, if I do, I would probably be more beautiful than you on your wedding day, and then Ash would want to marry me instead of you!" Then she thought a bit more, "Actually that's not a bad idea, ok I'll do it!"

"Never mind," Misty sighed. "What about you Daisy?"

Daisy didn't expect to get pulled into the conversation and it threw her off. "Me? Heh heh, well actually," she started to blush and fidgeted with her fingers, "I actually wanted to be the one to give you away…if you wanted me to."

"You wanted…to give me away?"

"Oh see now isn't that sweet?" Lily smiled. "Daisy wants to be your papa!"

Everyone laughed. "Daisy, I would really like it if you did give me away, in fact I would be honored," Misty said.

"Alright! Now that that's straightened out, let's talk more about the wedding! Since Daisy is going to give you away I just thought of a great idea! Well we could use a Milotic and a Lapras and have them carry you and Daisy to the altar, and then—"

"Uhm, Lily," Misty interrupted, "You know we're not having the wedding at Cerulean Cape, right? So that would be kind of hard to do…"

"Not if we create a water slide to go with it! Oh it would be awesome!" Lily exclaimed. "Hey, Ashy has a Lapras, right? We could get it to use ice beam!"

"Ash _had _a Lapras…Lily do you pay attention to anything I say?" Misty put her hands on her hips in annoyance.

"Well we could use Dewgong's ice beam to create the entire inside into an ice crystal palace! We would have to tell everyone to bring coats though because it would be super cold, but it would all be worth it! And then we could use the melted ice to create ice cream cones! Then we wouldn't have to worry about desserts after dinner!" She threw her arms up in the air and spun around. "This is so exciting! I'm such a genius! Don't you think so Misty? Uhm, Misty?"

She turned back around to find her little sister gone once again.

"Why does she always do that?"

Once she was sure she was out of earshot of Lily, Misty murmured, "What an idiot. I'm starting to wonder if we're even related…"

* * *

After hours of thinking during training, the young bride-to-be finally got fed up with thinking and decided call up both of her two best friends at the same time.

"Hi Misty," May and Drew waved to her.

"Hello Misty!" Dawn waved, a bit too enthusiastically.

"Well, she's hyper," Drew said with a yawn.

"Of course I am," Dawn answered, "Kenny just asked me out on a date!"

"You mean he never did before?" Misty asked.

"Well, he's tried so many times, but he's always been really shy about his feelings for me. Now he's finally asked me and now we finally get to go on a real date! I'm so excited!"

"That's really great Dawn!" Misty said excitedly.

"Well obviously Kenny needs a few practice lessons from me because I always know how to show my real feelings," Drew remarked as he kissed May on the cheek.

"Oh please, this comes from the guy who took six weeks to tell me he loved me," May teased.

"Well at least I said it, unlike _some_ people…" Drew said.

"Hey wait a second, Misty didn't even tell us why she called us," Dawn remembered.

"Thank you Dawn," Misty smiled.

"Hey hold on," May interrupted, "Drew I only didn't say it at first because I thought you wouldn't believe me!"

"Why on earth would I not believe you?! I take everything you say to heart, May, especially your love for me, so of course I would believe it." Drew looked a bit hurt here but didn't show it much in front of Dawn and Misty.

May sighed. "You're right, it was stupid of me, but that was ages ago. Now I'm not afraid to say I love you."

"So you were afraid? I thought you said that I wouldn't believe you," he raised an eyebrow at her.

May flinched. "Uhm, well…hey enough of this, Misty what did you have to tell us?" she asked, eager to change the subject.

Misty laughed and rolled her eyes, but was overall relieved to finally say what she had wanted to say.

"Well, I have been thinking, and I was wondering if both you and Dawn would become my maids of honor for the wedding."

May was shocked. "Really? The both of us?"

"Can you do that?" Drew asked.

"It's my wedding I can do what I want! Besides I'm tired of thinking which one to choose so I want to choose both of you. You all are my friends and I want you all to participate if you want, but if you want to fight over which one to be my maid of honor that would have to be between you two…" Misty trailed off.

"No way we would love to do it!" May and Dawn both said together and ended up laughing.

"Great! That makes me so happy!" Misty said.

"Hey, you said we can all participate right? So what is Drew going to do?" Dawn asked.

"Drew…" Misty thought aloud, "Hmm…"

"I know he can be a flower boy!" May suggested.

"A-a flower boy?!" Drew stuttered.

Dawn laughed. "That's true; May tells us you gave her flowers all the time when you guys were friends. He'd be perfect!"

"Hey! Those were for her Beautifly!" Drew tried to explain, but he couldn't say that without blushing a little.

"Oh, yeah like we are going to fall for that one like May did," Misty giggled.

May began to laugh, much to Drew's dismay. "May, you're not suppose to laugh!"

"I'm sorry Drew, but I just can't help picturing you coming down the aisle tossing roses around!" May laughed again, and soon everyone else joined her, except for Drew of course.

"We can give him a pink dress and call him Drewcilla!" Dawn joked.

Drew sighed in frustration, "Forget this, I'm going to bed."

"Aw come on Drew," May grabbed his arm, "We're only joking."

Drew rolled his eyes and flicked his hair. "Well anyway there is something I can do for you, Misty."

"Really?" she asked.

"I have the name of a florist I met. He lives somewhere in Kanto, and I guess he would be willing to help you if you ask."

"Wow, that really is great, thanks Drew!" Misty smiled.

"See he's already fitting the part of the flower girl!" Dawn laughed.

Drew rolled his eyes again, "Remember Dawn, every rose has its thorns."

"Huh, what does that mean?"

Drew flashed a malicious evil smile. "I don't think you want to know."

* * *

I love innocent and dense Ash, he's so fun to create. There's more of Ash and his denseness, but since he's older less of it should be expected...I hope. Anyway let me know what you all think so far! Suggestions are welcome!


	6. Chapter 6: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Chapter 6: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

"Misty, Misty wake up!" A playful childlike voice tried to wake her up early in the morning.

Misty moaned and turned over. "Ash not now I'm sleeping…"

"Aw, come on Misty today is a special day! I woke up this morning, and realized I had the day off for work, and I decided to visit my favorite girlfriend/fiancée/best red head ever today."

"Well couldn't you visit your other girlfriend at seven am in the morning," Misty groaned.

"I would Mist, but the only one I want to see is you," Ash smiled, thankful that her back was turned so she wouldn't see him blush wildly.

Misty smiled. A part of her loved it when he talked sweet, but at the moment she just wanted to sleep. "What's so special that you have to wake me so early in the morning?"

"Misty, it's 8:30am! Besides don't you know what today is? It's the Flower Festival!"

Misty slowly sat up and yawned. "Gosh, you're right it is! I forgot I am actually a part of it this year."

"Really?"

Misty slowly nodded and began to lay back down in bed. She pulled the cover up to her neck and closed her eyes. "I have a battle with a mystery trainer today. Everyone is going to see it, so I figure I use some new pokemon—my Poliwrath and Kingler—and of course Vaporeon as the anchor."

"You're using Poliwrath? Wow I bet that would be awesome!"

"Yes but the match isn't until 2pm, so if you don't mind…"

"But Misty I really came here to give you something."

"What is it," Misty groaned again.

"You would have to open your eyes and see." Ash smirked.

Misty slowly opened her eyes and gasped. "Ash…"

In his hands was a small table with legs that could fold at the hinges, and on the table was a plate full of breakfast food, along with a glass of orange juice to wash it all down.

"Ash, you-you made all this for me?" she was completely shocked, since no one had ever made her breakfast in bed so she never expected it, she always thought that kind of thing happened only in movies.

"Well yeah, and I've been holding it all this time! If you don't mind, it's a bit heavy," he waited for her to sit up and then happily placed the table in her lap.

"Oh Ash you should have told me earlier…"

"I wanted to surprise you! And before you ask yes I made everything myself, I had one of Brock's old recipes, so I cooked everything. I made the eggs sunny side up, I was extra careful not the burn the bacon like I always do—oh but we ran out of link sausage so I fixed up the flat ones. I know you don't care too much for pan sausage but you can eat it with the biscuits I fixed if you want. They have butter on them!"

Misty was still shocked. "I can't believe you did this…you went to all this trouble…"

Ash began to get worried. "You don't like it? I-I'm sorry I thought it would make you happy."

"Well I don't like it…I love it, Ash, just like I love you." She yanked him by the arm to get him closer to her and then kissed him with all the passion she could muster. It was one of the few kisses she actually gave to him instead of the other way around, and she wanted to make it count. Ash was so shocked he didn't even have a chance to pull away, and even his tongue willingly submitted to hers. They were like this for a while until she pulled away, and began to eat like nothing happened.

"Wow…all that for breakfast in bed, huh? I wonder what you would do if I bring you dinner!"

Misty was completely red in the face with embarrassment but managed to whisper, "Well, let's just say when I get done with you, you wouldn't be able to stand for a while…"

Ash, still being as dense as ever, didn't exactly know what that meant, so he made a mental note to ask Brock later on and another note just in case to never make her dinner in bed.

* * *

A bit later in the morning Misty finally got dressed and Ash took her downtown to the festival.

"Isn't this great, Misty?" Ash asked. "There's nothing like spending time with you and having fun at the same time!"

Misty laughed. Usually she would take that last comment as an insult but the Flower Festival always made her too happy to be angry. "You're such a kid, Ash."

Ash laughed and wrapped her arm around her. "I say we ride all the roller coasters until we puke!"

"Pika pikachu pi pika!" (No way in hell!) Ash flinched as Pikachu threatened to shock him.

"Let's just ride on a few ok?" Misty laughed.

Meanwhile a young man and woman had watched them as they passed by.

"Is that them?" the man asked.

"Yes, there they are," she answered.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Don't worry, we will see each other soon," she smiled as she held a pokeball in her hands.

Ash couldn't help but blush when she saw Misty in her swim suit. It was a light blue one piece decorated with white polka dots, with a small white flower near her breasts. Ash thought that it was simple but cute, and she looked good in it.

_But then again, she looks good in everything…_

"Ash!" Misty called out to him.

"Huh?" Ash jumped, hoping she didn't notice him staring at her.

Instead she grabbed his hand, "Come on, let's go play in the water! Pikachu is waiting for us!"

"B-but Misty I didn't bring a swim suit…"

"You got underwear on right?" she smiled.

"M-Misty!" he blushed like crazy, after realizing what she was implying.

"Aw, come on Ashy, show those legs!" She laughed as Ash was far too embarrassed to make a comeback.

Unfortunately for Misty, Ash just dangled his feet in the water as he watched Misty and Pikachu swim by Cerulean Cape for around thirty minutes. Pikachu, noticing how lonely his master looked, swam over to him.

"Hey, Pikachu! Where's Misty? We have to go soon."

Pikachu looked around and then said, "Pika pikachupi pika…"

"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Ash repeated, but then a second after he said this Misty popped up right in front him.

"Rawr, I got you!" Her arms were outstretched and she gave a menacing look, but just the way she jumped out of the water from seemingly no where nearly scared him to death. He jumped back and landed on his back, being hugged by Misty's wet body.

"Waaa! Misty what the hell! You scared the crap out of me!" he yelled.

"Oh really? I thought masters didn't get scared that easily…" she winked and him and moved in closer.

"Mi-Misty? What are you doing…?!" he began to feel really hot all of a sudden as she looked like she was going to kiss him.

"What do you think…" she had gotten closer and closer to him, blushing as her lips were about to touch his.

"B-but-but—"

"You aren't scared…are you?" she whispered, her breath dancing on Ash's lips. Ash felt his entire body shiver just by this indirect action.

Then, just when she was about to kiss him, she sat up quickly and smiled at him playfully. "What, you didn't actually think I would kiss you did you? In front of all these people?" she began to laugh and stand back up on her feet. "I scared you pretty good didn't I? Come on, my match is coming up." She helped the shocked Ash back to his feet, and then grabbed his hand and began to pull him toward her match location.

Finally Ash regained his normal heart beat. "Hey, I was not scared! You just startled me!"

"Sure I did, but you have to admit, me and Pikachu make a good team!" She grinned as Pikachu laughed on her shoulder.

He sighed, "I swear they're always out to get me…"

A few minutes later Ash and Misty finally got to their destination: a small stage platform that was lifted up a few feet off the ground. It seemed a bit too plain and simple for Misty's tastes, but then she figured it was only a short match so appearances shouldn't be too important. But like all matches, Misty was filled with determination, and she wanted to win. As she stepped up and got to her side, people were already starting to crowd the little area and she began to get a bit nervous.

"Hey, Mist, when you win lets go get some cotton candy," Ash said.

Misty laughed. "Aw Ashy, I wanted ice cream." She pouted playfully. "Fine, let's get both, but for now let me concentrate." She let out a sigh and closed her eyes. She blocked out all the noises around her in efforts to get focused.

Shortly after the referee/announcer stepped forward. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our little Flower challenge for today! Today we have a real treat for you folks; to my left is the one, the only, talented gym leader of Cerulean City, Misty!"

Everyone began to cheer as she smiled and waved to the small crowd.

"Go Misty go!" Ash yelled.

"Pika pika pikachupi!" Pikachu cheered.

"And to my right," the announcer continued, "The dazzling beauty that's face is shrouded in mystery, the vivacious Ayame!" As the crowd cheered for the mystery woman, she walked on stage and appeared to be anything but vivacious. She was tall, but every inch of her was covered in a long dark velvet cloak. Her hood covered her entire face, so she seemed like a female version of the grim reaper. Misty felt a bit naked to see her, although she still had on her wet bathing suit.

Behind the woman was a man, who was also tall, but much easier to see. He had on blue Hawaiian shorts and a white short-sleeved t-shirt with yellow flowers on it. He was also wearing a straw hat to protect from the sun, and although he was also wearing sunglasses, his brown eyes were still visible.

"Huh, that woman must be hot in that thing…" Ash murmured to himself. Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Alright, and now for the rules," the announcer continued, "This is a 3 on 3 battle with no time limit, and since this isn't a gym battle, both trainers are allowed to make substitutions. When one trainer's, pokemon are no longer able to battle, the battle is over. Now, are both trainers ready?"

"Ready," Misty said. The masked woman just nodded slightly.

"Well then begin!" The ref had thrusted up both of his arms with enthusiasm.

"Let's go, Kingler!" Misty threw her pokeball.

"A Kingler huh?" the woman smiled. "Go, Chinchou!" The tiny pokemon came out with its antennae shining with electricity.

"Kingler use bubblebeam!" Misty yelled.

"Thunder wave Chinchou!"

The bubblebeam came fast, but Chinchou was able to block it with thunder wave perfectly.

"Wow, thunder wave used as a defensive move! That's pretty clever," Ash remarked.

"Chinchou, take down let's go!"

Misty was a bit shocked by how fast Chinchou was, but was able to think quickly. "Dodge it and use crabhammer!"

Kingler was fast too, it jumped in the air and then came back down with one of its pincers glowing as it was coming down.

"Dodge it Chinchou! Use thunder wave!" the woman countered.

Chinchou was able to back up at the last second and used its electricity to paralyze Kingler.

"Oh no!" Misty gasped.

"Thunderbolt now!"

"Try to use water pulse, Kingler!" Misty commanded. Misty thought that Kingler wouldn't be able to do it in time, but a forceful water blast came out of its pincers at the last moment. The clash of water and thunder created an explosion, and both Kingler and Chinchou were invisible. The woman couldn't see her Chinchou to make a command but that didn't stop Misty.

"Crabhammer!"

The woman cried out for her pokemon as she saw it burst through the dust cloud and land hard on the ground. "Chinchou!"

After a moment the ref made his decision, "Chinchou is unable to battle, Kingler wins!"

The crowd began to cheer for the young gym leader's victory.

"Yeah, go Misty go!" Ash yelled.

"Pika pikachupi!"

Misty looked and them and smiled, but then looked back at her opponent. _I have to be careful, Kingler is a lot slower now thanks to that thunder wave, so I have to take my time with the next one._

"Crawdaunt go!" Out came a giant crab with a star-shaped mark on its head ready to battle. "Let's end this quick Crawdaunt, crabhammer!"

"Try to keep it back! Use water pulse!" Misty commanded. The water, unfortunately, didn't seem to be doing any effect as Crawdaunt sped forth and struck Kingler on the head with its big pincer.

"Kingler!"

"Kingler is unable to battle, so Crawdaunt wins!"

The crowd once again cheered for the victor.

"Wow, knocked out with one blow," Ash murmured. "Don't let it bother you, Mist, you still got this!"

Misty nodded. "Poliwrath, you're up!" The large tadpole pokemon seemed to burst forth from its pokeball, its large arms flexing as it began to size up its opponent. Misty let go of a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. It wasn't that Poliwrath was undertrained, in fact it was one of Misty's best trained pokemon. However since she had evolved it from another Poliwag she was lucky to capture, she realized it had a bit of a show-off streak. Misty obviously thought that with more training, and even another evolution, that it would be able to not show off so much. Unfortunately, Poliwrath was just short of being disobedient.

Misty laughed inwardly. _Yep, I messed around and caught Ash's Charizard._

The woman began to attack first, "Crabhammer, go!"

Misty didn't call an attack, but instead waited until just the right moment, and then said, "Jump and use dynamic punch!"

Poliwrath did just that, and the punch was so powerful that it knocked the heavy Crowdaunt almost into the crowd. The poor pokemon was shocked but still managed to get back into the ring.

Misty blushed, "Uhm, Poli, maybe a little less power next time ok?" Poliwrath nodded reluctantly.

The mystery woman was fazed but still managed to call an attack: "Crowdaunt, try your bubblebeam!"

"You use bubblebeam too, Poliwrath!" Misty countered.

Both attacks hit and ended up canceling each other out with an explosion. _I can use Poliwrath's blindness to my advantage! _The woman thought.

"Guillotine now!" Crowdaunt charged into the smoke.

_She thinks I really can't see huh? I trained battling in mist and smoke I don't need eyes!_ "Poliwrath, blizzard!" As soon as Misty yelled this the battlefield was covered with ice and the wind pushed Crowdaunt back. Crowdaunt tried to move but ended up slipping. "Dynamic punch!"

"Crowdaunt use crabhammer on the ground!" the woman yelled. The crabhammer had broken up the ice and ground and caused it to rise up like pillars heading right towards Poliwrath.

Misty smiled. "Go Poliwrath, jump on those pillars and use dynamic punch on each one!" Poliwrath did just that, and soon each one was broken up into bits and pieces of rock. "Now use Psychic and throw each one towards Crowdaunt!" Poliwrath was still in the air as it used psychic to hurl all the rocks it could towards its opponent; Crowdaunt was forced to use crabhammer on each one in efforts to stop the barrage of attacks.

_Now's my chance…_Misty thought. "Poliwrath quick, submission!" she yelled.

Because Crowdaunt was still swatting rocks, it had no time to dodge Poliwrath's strongest move, and was ended up getting tossed around by Poliwrath's body.

"Crowdaunt!" the trainer yelled to get it back up, but Crowdaunt was knocked out cold.

"Crowdaunt is unable to battle, Poliwrath wins!" the referee pointed his hand towards Misty's side. The crowd once again cheered and Ash breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hmm, just one pokemon left…" the young lady thought for a moment, then released her final pokemon.

"A Slowbro, huh? Well then in that case…" Misty returned Poliwrath and sent out Vaporeon.

"Slowbro use your surf attack!" the woman commanded.

Misty smiled as the wall of water came closer to her. "You can't drown a water pokemon! Go Vaporeon!" Vaporeon charged straight into the water and used its ability to become invisible.

The woman smiled. _I got her now._ "Slowbro, confusion!" Slowbro's eyes started to glow and soon every drop of water was under its control, including Vaporeon. Misty looked on in horror as Vaporeon was being dangled in the air at Slowbro's mercy.

"Let's give it a slam now!" Slowbro used its arms to move Vaporeon's body up in the air, and then used to them to slam it down to the ground. It did this over and over again, and Misty was forced to hear Vaporeon's cries.

"Vaporeon no!"

"Get Vapor out of there Misty!" Ash yelled.

"Pika pika!"

"Vaporeon aim your water gun towards the ground!" Vaporeon finally managed to do this and was able to break free from the confusion. Misty breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is far from over! Slowbro use focus punch!" Slowbro charged forth with incredible speed.

"Water pulse Vapor!" Vaporeon gathered up all the water it could in its mouth and hurled it towards Slowbro but it was ready.

"Confusion again!" Slowbro managed to halt its previous attack and used its arms to control the ball of energy effortlessly, much to the dismay of Vaporeon and Misty. "Mix it with your focus blast and send it right back to them!"

"Ah! Dodge it Vaporeon!" Vaporeon jumped out of the way just in time.

"I think she's in trouble Pikachu," Ash murmured. "If that Slowbro can control Vapor's water, then it also has control of Vapor. She can't use any water moves!"

"Pikachupi…" Pikachu looked worried.

_What can I do? How can I stop that flow of water from coming back at me? Wait…that's it!_ "Vaporeon use water pulse one more time!" Misty yelled.

"Again? What is she thinking?" Ash asked.

"You should know that won't work; Slowbro confusion once more!" Slowbro held it in mid air again and sent it right back to Vaporeon.

Misty smiled. "Use blizzard and then go into iron tail!" A steady stream of ice from Vaporeon's mouth had frozen the water, and then iron tail had broken it up into a thousand pieces that was heading right back towards Slowbro.

"No way! Use confusion to send it back to her!"

"Double team Vaporeon! Then use quick attack!" Misty countered. Vaporeon dodged all the icicles and then all the copies charged straight towards Slowbro.

Slowbro cried out as it was hit, but that didn't stop Misty from calling another move. "Iron tail now!" Vaporeon used its glowing tail over and over again to hit Slowbro and prevent it from recovering.

"Slowbro hang in there!" the woman yelled.

"Use blizzard into iron tail one more time!" Vaporeon did the same as it did before, making sure every speck of ice hit Slowbro at full force. Slowbro crashed to the ground in agony.

"Slowbro, can you stand up?" she was calm, despite her plan falling quickly out of control. Slowbro tried to get up but only managed to get to one knee. Misty held off her final attack, knowing from all her experience in battles that this round was over.

Sure enough, Slowbro fell back down to the ground unable to continue.

"Slowbro is unable to battle, so Vaporeon wins! The winner of this match is Misty!" Everyone cheered once again for the victor, and Ash and Pikachu got up on the stage.

"That was an awesome match, Misty," Ash said, "You really turned that confusion around."

"Thanks Ash," she bent down to pet Vaporeon, "I'm just glad I thought of it in time."

The woman returned her pokemon and slowly walked toward Misty and Ash. "It was an honor to battle you. I see you're still as strong as ever," she said.

"Hey, you were pretty strong too," Misty giggled, "Especially that Slowbro of yours. It's very well trained."

"Well, it's nice to know that I can still keep you on your toes, even after all this time…" she smiled. After seeing their confused looks the woman finally decided to remove her hood, revealing her shiny dark blue hair. "It's nice to see you again little sister."

"Ah! Violet?!" Misty was shocked but somehow not surprised.

"Wow, it really is you Violet! Long time no see!" Ash said.

Violet smiled. "A good disguise, no? I certainly had you both fooled didn't I?"

Misty laughed nervously. "Yeah you did."

"Well, I believe a congratulations is in order," she shook Ash's hand, "Welcome to the family brother-in-law."

"Hey how did you know? And thanks by the way," Ash replied.

"Just because I left didn't mean I didn't care anymore, besides Daisy kept me up to date. Oh by the way, I would like to introduce you to my boyfriend Kai." The man that was behind Violet earlier had came up and shook Misty's hand.

"It's nice to finally meet another Cerulean sister," he smiled. Misty blushed as he kissed her hand. "And a pokemon master," he went to shake Ash's next, "It's definitely an honor to meet you. Violet and I watched your match with Lance, and it was amazing."

It was Ash's turn to blush now, "Ah shucks really? It wasn't that great, but I am pretty amazing!" Misty sighed. She felt Ash's big head growing again.

"Well now that all the introductions are out of the way, how about we eat lunch?" Violet suggested.

"Yes! Food! Let's go Misty!" Misty yelped as her arm was unexpectantly tugged by Ash's hand.

"Waaaaaaa! Ash slow down, idiot!"

* * *

A few minutes later the group was sitting down at an outdoor table right by the water. Ash had two hot dogs and French fries, but was fighting with Pikachu over the ketchup, while Misty was explaining to Kai the origin of the Flower Festival.

"The Flower Festival is in celebration of a certain type of flower that Cerulean is known for, the Cerulean blue orchid. You see back in ancient times, this city was once part of a small island that was a bit distant from the shore, so it was hard to reach unless you had a boat. But what separated this island apart from others was that it had trees with a special type of flower that would bloom only at night. They had grown on many trees during the day, and at a certain time during the night, they would bloom and fall off the tree. So by the time morning came, there were flowers surrounding the entire island! From far away the blue flowers had mingled with the color of the ocean and it was like they were a part of the sea. That's how Cerulean got its name, but there aren't many of those flowers left that grow naturally here since many had gotten destroyed over time. But those that are left still bloom, and Cerulean is still as blue as ever!" Misty laughed.

"Wow, so let me guess, tonight is the night they bloom right?" Kai asked.

"That's right. It's really cool to watch them fall off the tree, and some people even say that the flowers themselves have a special power to them. People from all over come to see the flowers fall and even make wishes on them, hoping for prosperity and good luck."

"Now that's a cool tradition. I would love to see them fall."

"I'll take you to see them! There are only around fifty left in the far west side of the city, but the fact that the trees face Mt. Moon is really cool to look at…not to mention completely romantic, right Ash?"

Unfortunately Ash was still fighting over the ketchup with Pikachu and didn't hear a thing. "C'mon Pikachu give it back, you're going to put ketchup on everything!"

"Pika, pika, Pikachu!" Pikachu tried to keep Ash from wrestling it free from his paws, but it was a losing battle. Finally they both crashed to the ground where Ash had accidently landed on Pikachu's tail and received a thundershock for his trouble.

Misty sighed. "Boys…"

"Hey, like pokemon, like trainer right?" Violet said.

Kai laughed, "Are they always like this?"

"Only when people are around," Misty answered. "They like to look like idiots."

Ash managed to shakily get up from the ground and scowled at Misty. "It's not fair! That Pikachu knows how to hold on to a bottle of ketchup!" Pikachu however hopped back on the table like nothing had happened and continued to happily eat his ketchup in victory.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Anyway, so tell us, Violet, how did you two meet anyway?"

"Oh yeah, you guys would love this story!" Violet began, "Well I was on this small little beach in Humilau City—by the way it made me sad that there aren't many beaches in Unova—when I saw these two handsome looking men walking by me while I was trying to get a tan. Anyway so I walked up to them, in my sexy new bathing suit, went to Kai here and I said: 'Hey, is that guy with you available?'"

Ash and Misty began to laugh. "Violet you're awful!" Misty said.

"Violet loves to tell that story," Kai smiled, "But that's not really how it happened. You see I have a little sister and she can be real adventurous. I took her to the beach to meet up with a friend who had caught a Tentacruel and wanted her to see it. So I took her by the water and I told her to wait until I found my friend and came back. Unfortunately while I was gone she went into the water, knowing she wasn't a very good swimmer, and accidently went off into the deep end. She started to panic and go under, and when I heard her cries I tried to run to her, but I was afraid I wasn't going to make it. But then…I saw this beautiful purple-haired maiden that seemed to come from the sky itself. When I saw her dive in the water the first thought that went through my head was actually how fast she was going. Well, she dove in, grabbed my little sister, and came out so quickly I could hardly believe it.

I scolded my sis pretty badly, but then I just smiled and hugged her so tight she could hardly breathe. Then I told the woman thank you and asked for her name. She said her name was Violet and then I pretty much spent the rest of the day trying to repay her for what she had done. Finally she agreed to let me take her out to dinner and we've been together ever since."

"Wow, Violet…you saved his little sister?" Misty said in shock.

"Well of course I'm not that shallow! Have a little faith in me little sister," Violet smiled, seeming the push the incident aside like it was not that big of a deal.

Kai laughed again. "She always says 'it was nothing' but I can't help but thank her for that every day. She really is a great person."

"Oh Kai, stop you're making me blush," Violet giggled.

Misty still couldn't help but be a bit shocked. _Wow when I was little she pretty much shoved me in the deep end of the pool and laughed about it. I didn't know she had it in her to save a little girl…but maybe I'm being a bit harsh._

"So Misty, Ash, how did you two guys meet?" Kai asked.

Ash began to blush and scratched his head nervously. "Well…"

"He stole my bike."

"Did you have to go straight to that part first?" Ash moaned.

"Well it's a very important part you know," Misty smiled.

Upon seeing Kai's face Ash elaborated, "Well it was the first day of my pokemon journey and there were a flock of Spearow chasing us, so Pikachu and I went into the river…"

"Where I fished them in and then he took my bike and wrecked it," Misty finished.

"Hey those damn birds were gonna kill me! And besides it was Pikachu's thunderbolt that burnt your bike not me."

Pikachu narrowed his eyes but Misty covered for him. "I can't get mad at Pikachu it's only a pokemon. Besides a pokemon can't buy a bike only a person can, and what better than a trainer who owes me."

"You just love to pick on me don't you," Ash laughed.

"So wait you fished Ash and Pikachu out of a river? With a rod and everything? You must be one strong lady!" Kai said.

Misty blushed as Violet agreed, "Yeah she was always strong. When she was a kid none of the other kids wanted to play with her because she always beat them up."

"Well…they always pissed me off!"

* * *

Midway into the evening, Misty and the others finally came back home.

"Hey you guys, guess who I found!" Misty yelled.

Lily and Daisy came into the living room to find Kai and Violet sitting on the couch.

"Violet!" They both jumped excitedly and ran over to hug her.

"Daisy! Lily! I missed you both so much!" Violet said.

"Wow can you believe this! The Sensational Sisters are back together again!" Lily shouted.

"Ah, so you all are Vi's sisters," Kai interrupted, using his nickname for Violet. "I'm Kai and Violet's told me a lot about you two."

"Ohhhh so you're Kai," Lily rushed up to him. "It's very nice to meet you, my name is Lily, and I'm the most beautiful of all the sensational sisters—can't you tell?" She grabbed his hands and looked into his eyes. "So tell me handsome, where are you from?"

"Well, would you look at that," Misty whispered to Ash. "Seems like she's over her little crush on you isn't she?"

Ash nodded. "Darn," he murmured sarcastically.

Poor Kai was blushing far too much to make a comment until Violet came in between them. "So I see you're still a pervert as usual Lily. You haven't changed much."

"I am not a pervert! It's all in good fun really!"

Daisy went up to Kai next and shook his hand. "Hi, my name's Daisy, and I'm the oldest of all of us. If you ever need any help with anything, including controlling my sisters, you just let me know."

"Ha ha very funny Daisy," Violet replied sarcastically. "So, Lily," she continued, "Is hitting on every guy you see all you have been doing?"

"No way! I have you know that I am Misty's wedding planner for your information! And…not only that but I just got accepted into art school!"

This certainly shocked everyone as they all yelled out at the same time: "What?!"

"Yep, it's true!" Lily pulled out a crumple piece of paper from her pocket and flashed it in front of Violet's face. "I just got it this morning! I wanted to surprise you guys but…I'm finally going to achieve my childhood dream! I'm going to the art school in Saffron!"

Violet looked at the letter in disbelief. She read it over and over until Kai finally congratulated her.

"I didn't know you could draw Lily. That's pretty cool," Ash complimented.

"I haven't seen anything you've done in a long time. Are you sure you're still good?" Misty asked.

"Of course I am! They loved my sample drawing I did for them!" Lily placed her hands on her hips confidently. "Besides who wouldn't love anything done by a talented goddess like me?"

Violet, who was still reading the letter again, finally looked up. "You didn't type this did you?"

"C'mon Violet, she might be smart but not that smart," Daisy laughed.

"Hmph. You guys are just jealous. Just you wait, I'll be the best artist in the Kanto region!"

"Fine, well I'm proud of you sis. And what about you, Daisy?" Violet asked as she turned to her, "What have you been up to?"

Daisy flinched a little and nervously scratched her head, "Uhm, well…"

Then without warning, Misty spoke up for her. "She's been a big help around the gym, cooking and cleaning, and she takes me to work at nights too. She's really been good to me."

Violet seemed to smile sweetly. "That's great, Misty. Well then, let's go eat, I got tons of stuff to tell you guys!"

As everyone was going in the kitchen, Daisy held back Misty by her arm. "Misty…thanks. I just kind of froze for a second…"

"It's ok, really," Misty smiled. "Trust me let's just say I know how it feels."

Daisy nodded, but couldn't help but blush a little. Being the oldest, she had to learn to think on her feet and be able to get out of every situation. She couldn't help but wonder…why wasn't she able to speak when Violet had asked her what seemed like a very simple question?

* * *

Another chapter down! Hope you all enjoyed it! Now that I'm out of school for the holiday I've had more time to work on this story and I like the way it's going so far. If you guys have any suggestions let me know! I've been reading a lot of other fan fiction so I've managed to think of a few ideas. Anyway let me know how you all liked it!


	7. Chapter 7:Jealously Makes the Heart Grow

Since today is supposedly the day of the apocalypse I decided to post another chapter today. For those of you who haven't turned into zombies by Christmas day you can read my special chapter that I'll be posting then. It's actually harder than it seems to create an ending for this story, but I figure I might as well start thinking about it since it's fast approaching! Anyway enough rambling, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 7: Jealously Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

"Aggh, damnit," a young trainer sighed as he hung up his videophone for what seemed like the fifteenth time this week.

"How could I not get in touch with her? Not even once?" He placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. An older woman then walked into the room, showing a little concern for her son.

"Have you heard from Misty, sweetie?" she asked.

"No, she's at work again," Ash answered.

Delia could see the look in his eyes. She wasn't sure whether or not to believe him but at the moment she had no choice, she didn't want to force it out of him.

"Well, don't worry honey," she began to smile, "I'm sure she'll call back."

Ash could only nod as he watched his mother leave the room. He then scratched his beloved Pikachu behind the ears. Pikachu loved it, and it made Ash feel a bit better, but only for a moment.

"I just don't understand…Pikachu, what did I do wrong?" He sat there and began to think, just like he did every night for the past week, wondering what he did to have his beloved fiancée not speak to him for a whole week.

_Let's see…I was extra careful not to say anything to piss her off…I know some nights she was at work so there's nothing I can do about that…but there has been one thing that's been bothering me, or should I say one person._

_Kai._

_Sure I should have nothing against him, but I do, and I can't help that I do. He's been staying with Misty and her sisters at the gym ever since he and Violet came to Cerulean. I know I shouldn't be jealous but…when I think of all the things that Kai and Misty have in common…like the fact that they are both highly skilled water pokemon trainers that love the water, love to go fishing, and love talking about deep problems that happened to plague the society…not to mention the fact that they've been hanging out a lot more together._

_For this whole week._

_Is she just ditching me to see him? She couldn't be right? I mean even if he is just a friend I'm the fiancée and I'm more important!_

_Aren't I?_

_First they went to a movie together, then she takes him to catch some pokemon, and then they go dancing…what's he got that I haven't got?_

_Don't fool yourself, Ash. He's way better than you._

Ash sighed again. "Am I really…is Kai really better than me?"

"Pikapi…" Pikachu looked at him worriedly.

"Pikachu…what if she's falling for him?"

* * *

"Oh Ash, it's just one week of hanging out together, so you shouldn't worry," Dawn spoke to him. Ash was desperate to seek answers, and he figured there was no better way than to ask a woman. Sure Dawn wasn't technically of age yet, but at 8am in the morning he was lucky to talk to anyone at all.

"You really think I shouldn't worry? But she hasn't called me in a week. She usually always calls me. We say goodnight to each other, we talk about our day…I get to see her face…" Ash's eyes began to fill with tears. "Now every time I call she's always with him. It's like I can't compete with the likes of him…"

"Ash, don't even think that way! You're a sweet guy and you're always so caring…Misty would never even think of going for anyone else but you. You mean everything to her…" Dawn began to feel bad for him. She hasn't seen him this depressed in over a year and only after one week of not speaking to his love. She wanted to think that it wasn't that big of a deal but then she began to see it from Ash's point of view, and then it made more sense.

_He doesn't think he's good enough for her…_

"I want to believe that Dawn, I really do. I mean it's only been a week right? You can't fall in love with someone after only a week right? So then what is it? Is she getting bored with me?"

"I-I don't know…that can't be it! Who would get bored with you?! She must be crazy to think that way! Maybe we should call her," Dawn suggested, much to Ash's dismay.

"No! I-I don't…want to speak to her…" Ash let his head fall.

_Am I overreacting? Or is Misty really…?_

"Ash…maybe I should come to see you. It would cheer you up!"

"No Dawn, you're too far away, I couldn't put you out like that. Besides…I just want to be alone for now."

"Ash…."

"Thanks, Dawn. I owe you one. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone without even giving the chance for Dawn to say goodbye and slowly made his way into the kitchen. His mother was there cooking eggs.

"Hi sweetie," she greeted cheerfully. "I made you breakfast! How about we eat together?"

Ash smiled weakly. "Sorry, mom, but I'm not really hungry." He turned to leave before Delia could even make a reply. "Take care of Pikachu for a while please, I'm going out for a bit."

Delia nodded slowly. "O-ok dear."

She sighed as Ash shut the door behind him. "Oh Ash, I know just how you feel. The week your father died I felt the exact same way. Lost, confused, angry, scared…but most of all…alone."

_Maybe I am overreacting…_Ash thought to himself. He began to walk along a long dusty road. The sun was still a bit fresh over the horizon and most people were just beginning to wake up and get their morning paper. Some were standing on their porches taking in the fresh air and had waved to Ash as he passed by. Ash waved back and gave a fake smile.

_It's only been a week right? It's not like she's dead or anything. Besides, she went at least a year without any contact from me, think of how she felt. A week is nothing compared to what she went through. Maybe I am overreacting a little…_

"Hey, Ash, what are you doing up this morning, and without Pikachu?"

Ash looked up from his trance to see Gary at the top of the hill he was climbing. "Gary? What are you doing here?"

He began to laugh. "Me? I live here remember? You're the one who came waltzing up to my grandfather's lab."

"Huh?" Ash looked around to realize Gary was right: he had his head down the entire time and didn't realize he was walking straight to Professor Oak's lab.

"Geez, you're a slow one in the morning aren't you? But then again you were always that way…" he began to laugh again.

Ash could only sigh. He wasn't in the mood to fight off Gary's teasing. "Sorry. I wasn't really paying attention. I was just walking around and it wasn't my intention to come up here."

"Man, you're out of it today aren't you?" Gary patted him on the shoulder a bit too roughly. "Why are you so depressed? It's weird to see you out of it man."

Ash didn't want to tell anyone else of his problems, especially Gary, so he turned and began to walk back down the hill. "It's nothing to be concerned over. Don't worry about it."

"It's about Misty isn't it?"

Ash stopped walking and turned around. "How did you know?" he asked in shock.

"Only a woman could make a man look that way." Gary walked up to him and placed his arm around him. Ash couldn't help but be shocked by this display of concern.

"So, what did she do?"

"I-I think she's seeing someone else…" Ash murmured.

"Damn, that's cold. Wait, didn't you just propose to her? Why would she say yes and then sleep with someone else?"

"She's not sleeping with him! I-I don't know…I just think that…well she's seeing him more than me so…wouldn't you think that too?" Ash asked, finding himself confused again.

"Hell yeah I would. She's seeing the other guy over you after you wasted so much money for the diamond on her finger. I would be fucking pissed!"

"Well, I'm not really sure if she's actually…"

"Listen, Ash, I might have told you some crazy stuff but listen to me on this. Misty is your woman and no one else's. You fought for her so she's yours. If you want her then go get her. Women are never satisfied until they see a man fight for them, and that's what you have to do. Don't just walk around like a freaking zombie or something, she's your woman, Ash! Are you really going to let some random guy just take her away from you? Go punch the guy's lights out! Show him what you're made of! Don't get punked by that jerk!" He pushed Ash a little, nearly causing him to roll down the hill.

Ash luckily caught his balance and looked back at Gary. "I don't know…what if I just piss her off?"

"So freaking what tell her to get over it! She's your woman, and sometimes you just have to force women to see that. Tell her if she wants to keep that diamond she should shut up and spend the whole day naked in bed with you! Don't let her do you like this."

"Hey…maybe you're right…I should do it! I fought for Misty now I have to keep her! I love her too much to let her go so easily! I'm going to Cerulean right now and set things straight!" He clenched his fists in determination. "Yeah! I'm ready now!" He looked back at Gary. "Hey…thanks. How do you know all that stuff anyway?"

"Duh, Ash, I had women around me before you even had your first pokemon! Besides…you looked pretty pathetic walking up here."

"Ha, just you wait Gary! Next time you see me, Misty will be on my arm! I'll show him!" Ash then took off as quickly as he could down the hill, leaving a trail of flying dust in his wake.

Gary just laughed to himself and shook his head. "He better hang on to that woman. I would hate to see his face if he lost her…"

* * *

After about three hours of fierce bike pedaling, Ash finally made it to Cerulean Gym. He was tired and wanted to rest, but every moment spent resting was a moment lost to be with Misty. He barged in without a second thought.

"A-Ash?!" Daisy stood shocked as she watched him walk past her. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think? I came to see Misty," he answered back. His voice was a bit hoarse from not talking for a while but his angry eyes were enough to effectively cause Daisy to stagger back a bit.

"B-but she's busy right now…c-can't you…"

"No! She's my fiancée and if I want to see her now I will! Not even Misty can keep me away from her!" He turned around and kept walking, stomping his feet on the ground, ignoring Daisy's calls for him.

He turned the corner and instantly froze at the sound of Misty's laughter.

"Oh this is a great idea!" she exclaimed.

Ash wasn't ready to be caught just yet, and hid behind the corner.

"See I told you. And you said it wasn't a good idea," Kai said.

"Hm, well I was a bit apprehensive, but you did have a good way of convincing me," she giggled. "And it came out so beautiful, I could cry!"

"I'm good at this sort of thing. Lily isn't the only one who's an artist," he laughed.

Misty giggled again. "Well, I say we go out for breakfast to celebrate our union. Then we can come back here and you can show me that technique you were talking about."

"I'd love to," Kai replied.

This nearly tore Ash's heart in two. He had no idea what they were talking about but knew it had to end here.

"That's it!"

Kai and Misty jumped as they saw Ash come from behind the corner and barge into her office.

"Ash? What are you doing here?" Kai asked.

"What, did I interrupt something? Oh forgive me if I was _interrupting_ a sweet moment between you two."

"Ash, what's wrong? Why are you so angry?" Misty asked.

"Why am I so angry?! I wouldn't be angry at all if my one true love wasn't here cheating on me with another man!"

"What?!" they both exclaimed.

"Oh please, no need to lie about it, I heard everything. I can't believe this…I-I thought…" Ash began to cry for the second time that morning.

Misty had never seen Ash this angry. "Ash, you don't understand…"

"No. I understand this is bullshit, that's what I understand."

"No really Ash," Kai said softly, "You really don't understand—"

"Alright then so explain it to me then! How else am I suppose to understand that you stole the one thing I had to live for, huh? Explain that to me!"

Kai shook his head. "Ash, I would never do that to you. You see, Misty and I, we were just…planning a surprise…for you."

Ash's head began to spin. "What?"

"It's true, Ash," Misty spoke up. "Me and Kai had been planning it for a week now, and took a lot of effort, which is why I couldn't really talk to you. For that, I am sorry."

She lifted up a giant picture frame that was on top of her desk. "I wanted to show this to you later today, but since you're here…"

Ash's eyes widened. "I-I can't believe it…"

Inside the picture frame was a giant collage. It had to be at least a thousand pictures of Ash and Misty, but mostly Ash and his pokemon canvassed the background. From far away the images seemed to merge together, creating a landscape of a hill. At the top was a picture of Pallet Town just as if a person were walking to the town and seeing it from a hill a few miles away.

"I…I—I…" Ash stuttered. He truly didn't know what to say.

Misty was still nervous to talk to him based on how angry he was a few seconds ago. "D-do you like it? Ash…don't you remember what today is? Today is the first day we met, do you remember? I wanted to plan something for you, so I gathered all these pictures together. It was a good thing Brock had a camera throughout his journey, but it took us all ages to get all the pictures together. I wanted to surprise you, but I was afraid I would ruin the surprise if I talked to you, so that's why I didn't…I'm still so amazed we finished it today. Doesn't it look absolutely beautiful? Lily and Kai helped me, ha ha, if it wasn't for them I would have gotten fed up ages ago. Ash? Don't you like it?"

Ash was still in shock and couldn't say a word.

Kai laughed. "Well would you look at that, Misty he's speechless!"

"Yeah, never would have thought I seen the day…" Misty said.

Kai walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder to get him back to reality. "I can't believe you actually thought Misty would cheat on you, with me of all people! Did you forget I'm in love with Violet? I would never do that to you, or Vi, and I wouldn't let Misty do that to you either. I respect you too much to betray you like that Ash."

Ash slowly looked at him. "I—I'm…"

"I understand so it's ok. Hey I would think the same thing if Vi was hanging out with some other guy. It's just the way the heart goes right?" Kai said with a smile. "Well I'll leave you two alone. Hey Misty I'll teach you that technique later. Besides, I think I smell Vi's cooking."

Misty nodded. "Okay Kai. Thanks." After he left, she walked past Ash, who was still frozen solid, and closed the door. She then walked back over to the picture leaning against the wall.

"I'm really glad how this turned out," she said happily. "Ash, come on take a closer look honey."

Ash slowly walked over to the picture and ended up standing next to Misty. They stood there in silence for a few moments, taking it all in. Most were pictures of Ash as he was starting his journey; pictures of Misty and Pikachu filled the top of the picture, all of the Ash pictures made up the 'hill' of the collage, his pokemon and a few pictures of other friends were towards the bottom of the collage, and more pictures of Ash and Misty decorated the very bottom—some even sinking from view into the picture frame.

"Do you want to know my favorite picture?" Misty asked. After a second of searching she pointed to a picture of Ash, Misty, Brock, holding joined hands in the air as they were celebrating one of Ash's early victories in his first pokemon league tournament. Pikachu was seen cheering on Ash's head and his Squirtle was down beside him. It was a bit worn from the years of being carried around in Misty's pocket, but it was able to stand the test of time.

"I must have spent ages trying to figure out why was that picture my favorite. After we all separated and you went to Hoenn I finally figured out my answer. That day was one of the proudest days of my life. It was also one of the first days I remember when all of the pride I had was for you. I realized that on that day, you showed to me, and to everyone else at that tournament, that you were there to win and you were willing to go all the way relying on the strength and bonds you had with your pokemon. I was so proud of you. You came a long way from that ignorant kid who trashed my bike. You really came into your own style and it fit. I realized that at that day, you had the potential to become a great trainer." She turned to look at him.

"And I was right."

Ash finally found his words. "M-Misty…I'm sorry I—"

"Shhhh…" Misty silenced him by putting her finger to his lips. She blushed a little as she whispered, "Don't say a word…" She leaned forward and kissed him. It was a simple gentle kiss that Ash was willing to accept. Anything in his eyes was better than angry shouts in his ears.

After the kiss Ash was still confused but Misty turned around before he said anything.

"I'm sorry, Ash. I was just so focused on getting this together for you, I didn't realize that you would take me and Kai hanging out together the wrong way. But I guess it would make sense, like Kai said I would feel the same if you were with some other girl and started to neglect me…"

"I'm sorry Misty. It was wrong of me to overreact like that," Ash murmured.

"Maybe…" Misty turned back around to face him, "But I kind of liked it when you barged in here like that. I was more scared for Kai than I was for me." She laughed.

"I was more scared for myself than angry," Ash replied. "I thought for a second I had lost you. I guess I picked the wrong conversation to eavesdrop on."

Misty placed her hands on her hips and moved closer to him. "That technique Kai was talking about concerned pokemon battling only. All the other techniques I rather learn together with you…you know, when we're alone…like we are now…" She began to blush as she kissed him again.

Ash smiled softly and deepened the kiss and then wrapped his arms around her waist, while she placed her arms on his shoulders. After a moment he pulled away. "So you're not mad?" he whispered to her.

Misty shook her head. "No. Like I said I know how you feel and I'm sorry for making you feel that way. Besides, if you ever cheated on me you better pray to God I never find out."

Ash laughed. "I never will. I love you."

Misty smiled and said, "I love you too, honey, and I always will. Don't ever forget that." She kissed his cheek. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I have one more picture that I didn't put in this collage, a secret picture that I've kept to myself when Nurse Joy from Viridian gave it to me a few years back…"

"What is it?" Ash asked, getting excited again.

Misty turned and went to her desk. She pulled out the long middle drawer and finally found her old photo hidden underneath some papers. She still wondered how this picture was even kept preserved for so long. After smiling at it softly, she walked back over to Ash and showed it to him.

In an instant, everything seemed to come back to him. "Oh wow, I remember this…" he whispered.

It didn't take long for Ash to think back to nearly ten years ago…the day after the first day he met Misty.

They were both still in Viridian, trying to comprehend how a little Pikachu, mixed with a smokescreen attack from Team Rocket's Koffing, could be able to destroy over half of the massive pokemon center that they were just in.

"Wow, I'm too late…" an officer Jenny had skidded onto the scene on her motorbike, just in time to see the flames. After a team of water pokemon managed to put out the fire, and Team Rocket used the diversion to effectively disappear, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu were standing near the piled rubble.

"So much power…and all from just a few Pikachu…makes you never want to take that power for granted," Nurse Joy stated, just happy that she still managed to come out of the fray.

Officer Jenny stood next to her and nodded, "Yes, but it's a shame we didn't catch those thieves that were trying to steal the pokemon."

"Don't worry Jenny," Misty replied, "I'm sure they will get caught sooner or later."

"Let's just hope for sooner rather than later," Jenny said.

"Well I'm just happy we're all ok, right Pikachu?" The young and tired trainer from Pallet finally spoke, carrying a sleeping looking Pikachu in his arms.

"Pikachu…" Pikachu sighed into his arms and began to fall asleep. Misty rolled her eyes. She would have scolded the boy for using such a dangerous move in a closed area, but she knew that there was probably no other choice. Besides that, she couldn't help but admire the boy's foolish bravery.

"Well, I have to take a picture for the police report," Jenny took a small handheld camera from her pocket. "Since I have to make a note of the witnesses as well, why don't you all stand in front of the building…or what's left of it," she began to giggle.

Nurse Joy stood in the middle, in front of the only thing that was left in somewhat one piece: her computer. Ash with his now sleeping Pikachu cradled in his arms stood on her left, while Misty stood on her right.

Officer Jenny smiled as she brought the camera up to her eyes. "Alright now, everyone say cheese!"

And that's how the picture that Ash now held in his hands came to be, after the Officer Jenny made a copy for Nurse Joy, and Joy made a copy for Misty.

"Wow you look irritated, Mist. I guess I really pissed you off," Ash chuckled.

"Well after you destroyed my bike and a pokemon center in two days I guess anyone would be a bit frazzled," she laughed. "I knew from that moment that you were just a walking disaster waiting to happen."

"So why did you follow me for so long then?" Ash asked as he winked at her.

"Duh, to get my bike back! And besides, someone had to keep you in line from destroying anything else," Misty folded her arms and looked away, pretending to be annoyed.

"So either you were my good luck charm or a thorn in my side…hmm, which was it I wonder?"

Misty narrowed her eyes and was about to comment, but Ash had switched the subject. "I really thank you for this, Misty. This has to be one of the most thoughtful and meaningful things I've ever received." He looked down at the picture again. "I'll never forget this."

Misty smiled sweetly. "I'm glad I could make you happy."

Ash looked to her and blushed. "Every day you make me happy." He gave the picture back to her and began to walk out of the room. "Now I just have to go and apologize to Daisy and Kai."

Misty nodded, but then remembered Ash's question, "Hey wait a second! Was I your good luck charm or a thorn in your side?"

Ash only laughed and kept walking.

"Ash!" She gritted her teeth and ran out of her office after him.

Later on, Misty herself had a lot of apologizing to do, one for Delia, one for Dawn, and even one for Gary—after bugging her about it for days and insisting that he make it up to Ash by cooking naked for him for a week. After a furious blush came upon her cheeks she suggested that she should kick him in a place he would never see naked again.

Gary abruptly ended the call.

* * *

And that's the end of this chapter! To be perfectly honest, I'm not really satisfied with it, but due to my lack of knowledge on relationships I didn't know a great gift you would give someone for the anniversary of the first day you met that person. Plus I wanted to bring Gary in the story too. Anyway the next chapter is a bit more closer to my heart so be sure to tell me how I'm doing so far!


	8. Chapter 8: The Perfect Christmas Gift

Merry Christmas everyone! As promised I bring you all the gift of a long chapter. I've been working on it for a while, so I think it turned out well. Anyway this chapter is actually a dedication, to those who lost their lives in the Connecticut incident, and to both of my grandmothers, who I have been thinking of all this month. One grandmother I had lost at least ten years ago on the 15th of December, the other grandmother I had just lost last year in June. It's amazing how when people die we seem to think about them the most, not that we don't think of them when their alive, but when they're gone and we know we can't speak to them it seems like we think about them more and all the things we want to say to them. Well before I start to cry I better stop talking. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8: The Perfect Christmas Gift

The sun began to fade over the horizon once again as Misty stood outside her gym. She loved summer and getting a chance to wear a bikini on the beach, but being a water pokemon trainer she would never admit in public that she liked winter the most.

She hugged her light brown winter coat closer to her as she smiled at the first star of the evening.

"It's getting late, I better hurry." She placed her hands in her pockets and began to cross the street. Having traveled Cerulean streets many nights, she adored the time during the holidays when she got to see everything decorated in tinsel and Christmas lights. As she inhaled deeply she could smell delicious food cooking from far away and she heard children laughing as they played with each other.

She smiled, enjoying every moment. She was especially happy today. After working hard for a few months, she finally got the night off from working and closed the gym up early. She and her sisters had spent most of the day decorating the interior of the gym, and after spending a while trying to decide where to put the Christmas tree, she had gotten fed up with it and decided to sneak away for a bit. Besides, there was something else she had wanted to do today.

As she turned another corner her mind began to trace back to the past. She remembered herself as a scared, frantic, distressed ten-year-old running this exact path. She had on short blue jean shorts with red suspenders from the rim set around her shoulders. She had on a short yellow tank top shirt that was a bit worn from weeks of wear and tear. She had on red shoes, carried a red bag, and wore her hair in a messy ponytail. She was sick of the teasing, sick of the disrespect, sick of being an outcast, and sick of the world. She wanted more, and she needed more, so she ran…and ran…until she came to a spot she never thought she would see again.

It was the very spot she stood today. She smiled weakly as she remembered the first time she came here, crying out of frustration and desperation. She sighed as she knelt down, and stared off into space for a while until the feel of the wind carried her back to the present.

"Oh, I forgot I have been holding these flowers all this time," she smiled as she laughed to herself. "You guys must forgive me; I've been daydreaming a lot today." She placed the flowers in a vase that was on the ground. "I hope the wind doesn't get too hard tonight and blow them away. I would hate for them to get trampled."

She sighed as she looked fondly into space again. Her eyes set upon an object that was brightened by the setting sun. She read their names on the tombstone for what seemed like the thousandth time.

Coral Waterflower

Loving Mother and Devoted Wife

Alex Waterflower

Loving Father and Devoted Husband

Then she read the short poem that was beneath these names.

Though you walk into the light hand and hand today,

Remember that our love never fades away.

Though we may grow older we will never forget,

The love we felt from you that we can't regret.

From your loving children: Daisy, Violet, Lily, and Misty

She remembered the day she cried when her sisters told her that they weren't going to put her name on the tombstone at first. Now all she could do was laugh and shake her head.

"It's funny the way life goes don't you think so? They hated me for all these years, and then they forget your birthday of all days." Misty laughed. "Happy birthday, mother. I'm sorry I couldn't get you anything this year, I would have but funds are so low at home."

She smiled and continued, "No, it's not that we aren't getting money, we're just not getting enough. The princesses spend it just as quickly as it comes." She sighed and looked around at the scenery. She was still pleasantly surprised that the grass was still being cut despite the weather. She laid her back to the ground and closed her eyes.

"You both are so lucky to have this relaxing spot. You have a small lake on one side and you face Mt. Moon on the other, not to mention you can still see parts of the city too." She sat back up. "And what about you, dad, how are you feeling today? Hopefully you've been keeping mom company."

She closed her eyes and felt the wind brush against her cheek. "Oh dad, I love you too. Don't be so emotional." She paused again. "Don't worry I'll come to see you both even after the wedding. I'll let you guys see Ash too. He's grown a lot from the pictures I had shown you. You will love him too he's absolutely amazing." She placed a hand to her heart and smiled. "He's my everything. I never thought I could love someone so much. I've been blessed just to know that he's in my life."

She didn't want to cry in front of her parents so she laughed instead. "But he can have a reckless streak and he still has his dense moments. But I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world."

She laid back down on the ground, which was getting colder now due to the falling temperature. "I wonder…what mom thought of when she met dad for the first time. Or maybe when she was walking down the aisle on their wedding day, what was she thinking? I wonder…oh well I guess I'll find out in a few weeks." She looked at the clouds that were gathering. She heard of the chance of snow and she had wanted to see it, but didn't think she could last long in this cold weather.

She closed her eyes. "Mom…dad…when you both imagined your future what did you think of? A home? Kids? Or was it something more…?"

* * *

"Misty?"

"Mmmm…wha—?"

"C'mon, baby, wake up."

"Aww, do I have to…"

"Unless you want to freeze to death, and I won't let you do that."

Misty sat up. She didn't realize how dark it gotten, nor how cold it was either. "I must have…fallen asleep."

She looked to her left to see Ash's scowl. "Misty don't you know how dangerous that is? We were worried, we didn't know where you were, and you were out here all alone sleeping in the cold."

"I'm sorry. I was out here talking and must have dozed off." She smiled.

Ash wasn't so angry anymore knowing that Misty was safe and forgot his rant that he had planned for her when he found her. "Who were you talking to in a graveyard?"

"My parents," she said lazily.

"Huh?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, finally waking up, "Let me introduce you!" She turned to the tombstone happily. "Mom, dad, this is Ash. Isn't he so handsome?"

Ash blushed. "Misty…you, I mean do you really…well how do you even…?" Ash flustered over his words, unable to comprehend what was going on.

"How do I talk to them? It mostly comes from your heart instead of your head. Just talk like you haven't talked to a good friend of yours in a long time, or better yet, talk to them like you're talking to your best friend in the whole world, someone you can tell anything to," she replied.

"I see." Ash nodded, then knelt down to the ground. "You know, I want to let you both know that you have a great daughter here," he began to blush again, "But she was a bit of a pest when we first met…"

"Oh shut up. You're just a big baby," she scowled and hit him on the back of the head.

"Ow! See she still hits people too!" Ash laughed.

"You want me to kick you don't you?"

He kept laughing and stood up to run away as she brought her leg back behind her, as if she was about to kick a football. She then huffed and turned back to her parents. "He was just as much of a pest as I was trust me, but at least he's a little smarter now. I'll see you both soon."

"Hey I heard that!" Ash pouted.

"It was a compliment silly. You're lucky to be getting one." She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed.

"Well don't I feel honored to get a compliment from the proud and gracious Misty of Cerulean City—"

"Aw shut up already," Misty joked, rolling her eyes at him. She had turned around to leave, but then remembered the vase of flowers sitting by the tombstone. "It's going to get colder tonight. Do you think they'll be ok?"

Ash gave her a dumbfounded look and Misty elaborated, "Not my parents, silly, the flowers. I don't want them to get blown away or freeze. What should we do?"

Ash thought for a moment and then had a little idea. Misty watched as he took off his scarf. "Ash, what are you—"

"This should keep the flowers from blowing away." He wrapped his thick scarf around the vase and flattened it out at the bottom to provide a stronger base for it. He then tried to shield a couple of flowers from the wind by covering them with part of the scarf. "Hmmm, I don't know if it would be able to protect them completely, but at least from the western wind."

"Ash, that's your scarf, you don't have to do that. It's only going to get colder and you might catch a cold," Misty said.

"It's fine, Misty don't worry about it. Besides it's only a scarf anyway I can always get another." He turned to Misty and smiled. "Are you hungry? Maybe we should get something to eat before going back."

Misty was still shocked by the simple act of kindness that Ash showed. "Uh, sure. Thanks Ash for doing that, it was really sweet."

Ash smile seem to have gotten brighter at those words. "Anything for you, my little Corsola. It was nothing."

"So that's why you were at the cemetery," Ash said as he bit into a piece of steak. He and Misty had taken a turn into a small restaurant that happens to be known for the best steak in Cerulean. Having been there several times, Ash could determine this to be a fact. Misty sat across from him sipping on her tea and lemon.

"Yeah, today is my mom's birthday, and I was just sitting there and thinking about stuff and I just fell off to sleep. I didn't even realize it until you woke me because it was so comfortable."

"Comfortable?" Ash repeated. "Misty it's like 50 degrees outside no way is that comfortable. Especially without a blanket. After all the years we spent sleeping outside you should know that just as much as I do."

"Well, now that I think about it, I was never really that cold, especially when Togepi was with me. Besides, I always managed to keep myself warm," she smiled fondly as she remembered those days.

"Really? How? Togepi was really small so it couldn't have kept you that warm. What were you doing?"

"Uhhh…" Misty flinched a bit. She wasn't quite ready to admit that back when her crush on Ash was developing, she spent nights thinking about her and Ash snuggled up close together under the blankets. It always made her really warm…

As she felt a blush coming on she quickly changed the subject, "Uhm anyway Ash, thanks for coming to look for me, it was really sweet."

Ash smiled. "Well duh Misty you are my fiancée I have to look out for you." After saying this he cut a piece of his meat and picked it up with his fork. He then moved it closer to Misty's lips. "Open."

Misty happily obliged as she tasted the juicy meat in her mouth. "You're always sweet to me," she replied.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you weren't before."

"That was before I realized how beautiful you were."

Misty blushed for what seemed like the tenth time that night as Ash began to ask her another question.

"So do you always give your parents gifts for birthdays and stuff?"

"Only sometimes. I would usually get mom some flowers, but all the flower place had were daisies. Tulips went fast this year for some reason," Misty answered.

"Tulips? Is that your mom's favorite flower?"

Misty nodded. "Yes, mom always loved that flower, although I have no idea why. Daisy said that mom had grown flowers a lot as a child but I think it's another reason why she loves it."

"And why is that?" Ash leaned forward.

Misty winked at him. "Women tend to love the flowers they receive by their boyfriends. My guess is dad gave her a lot of tulips while they were going out, but I guess we'll never know the real answer. It's fun to think I'm right though," she giggled.

"I thought it was weird at first how you talked to your parents like that, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense," Ash replied, finishing off his steak. "I wonder if my mom used to do that too."

"Have you ever been to your dad's grave?" Misty asked.

"I don't even know where it is. But I suppose that's ok. It would be awkward to go anyway."

Misty nodded, "It was weird at first for me, but they were the only ones I could talk to at the time, and over time it felt like I was getting closer to them."

"How can you get close to someone that's not even alive?"

"I guess that's the part that's the hardest to explain." She closed her eyes as she tried to think of a good answer. "Maybe it's like how you wanted to win that battle against Lance. The determination was there but you just had to reach out for it. It's the same with me and my parents. I always knew they were watching me, but in the end I had to reach out to them because they couldn't do the same to me. I wanted to know them, to feel their presence, and for them to know that I could feel them. That way it's easier to stay in contact. Dreams are just dreams until you achieve them."

Ash's eyes widened at those words. He knew she could be deep, but the way she explained it all made so much more sense. "H-have you achieved your dream?"

Misty let her head fall a bit. "To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure if I even had one to begin with. I wanted to be as close to my parents as I could but no matter how hard I try I can't feel them, I can't even see them, or touch them, or hear them. But…at least I know a bit about them, and that makes me happy. But if I had any dreams in life I could say for sure that I have achieved at least one dream of mine."

"And what's that?"

She smiled brightly. "I have you."

* * *

Ash awoke with a start early the next morning. He had ended up spending the night at Misty's gym because it was too late to ride back to Pallet. But getting back home didn't matter to him at the moment. He looked around him sleepily from his sleeping bag. He still slept in Misty's room, but respected her privacy enough to sleep on the floor instead of in the bed with her. He looked from his sleeping Pikachu to his sleeping girlfriend and smiled. He wasn't the first to get up often but he liked it when he was. He carefully crawled out of the bag, careful not to disturb Pikachu, and crept out of the room. Unlike the quietness of Misty's room, downstairs was a bit lively.

"Ashy, there you are!" Lily stumbled to him. "Good morning, darling," she laughed.

"Lily are you drunk? It's like 10 in the morning!" Ash said as he tried to keep her from falling.

Lily moaned happily, "Mmmmm, I'm always drunk around you, Ashy…" She laughed hysterically. Ash finally pulled Lily off him and sat her at the breakfast table.

"Sorry 'bout that Ash," Kai murmured, sipping on coffee. "She got into Daisy's eggnog hard this morning."

"Uh, yeah I can see that." Ash shook his head and laughed. "Hey by the way, have you seen Daisy? I want to ask her something."

"Oh, she's in the battle area training with Vi," Kai answered. "Hey, don't tell me you're having troubles with Misty again?"

Ash shook his head. "Nothing like that, I've learned my lesson. I didn't know that Violet and Daisy were training."

"Yeah, she usually trains with me every day, but today Daisy beat me to it. Do you want to watch?"

"But what about Lily?"

Ash halted his concern once he noticed her head was on the table and her light snoring could be heard.

Kai laughed. "Oh I think she'll be just fine. C'mon let's go."

When Kai and Ash finally got to the battle area of the gym they were witnessing an intense match between Violet's Chinchou and Daisy's Cloyster. As soon as they reached the bleachers that faced the pool, a strong cry was heard from the purple-haired trainer:

"Chinchou, thunder wave go!" Sparks flew from Chinchou's antennas as it shot forward like a rocket, heading right towards the purple shelled menace.

Daisy smiled from across the water, satisfied that her opponent had no choice but to charge in to attack. "Cloyster, use spike cannon!" The shelled pokemon hid its face with its armor and had glowed a bright white as dozens of spikes were shot forth and propelled right at Chinchou. The poor little blue pokemon had no choice to use its thunder wave as a barrier, but it only lasted so long before it took most of the damage from the attack and ended up spiraling backwards.

"Chinchou!" Violet yelled.

Daisy snapped her fingers, calling her next attack, "Let's finish this Cloyster! Ice beam!" Cloyster had opened up its shell again, revealing a dark, yet smiling face. A steady beam of ice came out of Cloyster's mouth and made contact with Chinchou before it had a chance to recover. Chinchou screamed out in pain from the freezing cold until finally it collapsed, unable to continue.

Violet sighed sadly, yet she gave her older sister a smile. "That was a good match." She recalled her pokemon and gave it words of encouragement. "You were great out there, little one. Don't be too disheartened, you held your own facing a high level Cloyster."

Daisy smiled and turned to face Ash and Kai after returning Cloyster. "Oh hi boys I didn't see you there. I see you liked the match right?"

Both men nodded. "It was great," Ash replied. "Your Cloyster is really awesome."

"Of course," Daisy shrugged, "I've had it since it was a baby Shellder and it was my first pokemon." Then she turned to Violet as she made her way from the other side of the pool, "But Violet did really well considering that fact. She managed to inflict some serious damage on Cloyster before you guys came in."

Violet nodded. "You're still as strong as ever Daisy, and thanks for training with my Chinchou I think it learned a lot. Unfortunately I don't know if it will ever be able to evolve and get stronger…"

"Aw don't be so pessimistic, Vi," Kai patted her shoulder, "When it wants to evolve it will."

"He's right," Ash agreed wholeheartedly, "Trust me pokemon are just as strong whether or not they evolve, but it all depends on the strength of the trainer. Just look at my Pikachu for example, he's got plenty of heart and strength and he didn't even evolve into a Raichu to get it."

Violet looked to Ash and smiled. "You're right. I guess we both still have a lot of work to do."

"No matter how strong we get we never stop learning," Kai said. "C'mon Vi, you can help me pick up your mess of a sister off the kitchen table and some place where she can sober up."

Violet rolled her eyes, "Aw geez that should be fun." As Kai and Violet left to face another challenge Ash remembered his question he had for Daisy.

"Hey Daisy can I ask you something?"

The blond looked a bit surprised but nodded reluctantly. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing like that, I just need help with something for Misty."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Ash rubbed his nose as he began to blush. "Well, it's just…Misty told me about her parents. I found her last night talking to them at their gravesite, and then she told how she had wanted to get closer to them, but this is pretty much impossible physically. I want to help her and make her feel better about the relationship she has with them, but honestly I have no idea how to do that. If there's anything I want to give to her this Christmas it would be to let her have a better closeness to her parents that she should have. Sometimes it just feels like there's something holding her back, besides the fact that her parents are long gone, and I want to help her through it. Since you know the most about your parents maybe you can help me? Anything to tell her to give her encouragement would do," Ash replied.

Daisy was shocked. "Ash…you really think I would be able to help you? I lost that connection with our parents too…I doubt I would be much help to you or to Misty." She saw the sadness streak across his face. She didn't want him to be sad…maybe there was one thing she could do, after all he would be just like a younger brother in about a month.

_A younger brother…_Daisy smiled. "Ash I think it's wonderful how you want to help Misty in this way. You're like the first person who actually came out openly about our parents like this, and the fact that you want to help Misty by doing this…you know," she placed a hand on her cheek, "there might be at least one thing I can do for you. Follow me."

Daisy led a confused Ash through the halls, and she couldn't help but smile a bit as she looked back at him. "Now I know why Misty likes you so much. At first I thought it was because you were cute, or because she knows you better than anyone else, but it's more to that isn't it? You don't like Misty just because she's cute, it's the connection you have with her. I see that now…so that's what it's like…"

"Huh? What do you mean Daisy?"

Daisy giggled and she shooed away his question with a wave with her hand. "Come on, it's just a bit farther now."

Ash looked around as he was heading into a long dark hallway, which he figured had to be on the far west side of the gym. He also noticed that compared to the other halls, this one was a complete bare white, although the darkening light was proving to be the contrary. Finally they stopped nearly half way down the hallway, and Ash was shocked when Daisy looked up. There was a long string attached to the wall, but a rectangular outline on the ceiling was clearly visible where the string was attached.

"An attic?" Ash questioned.

Daisy smiled. "For years no one else has been back through this hall except me. This is a secret place of the gym, not even Misty knows about it."

"What's up there?" Ash wondered aloud.

Daisy pulled the string. "Memories."

Once Ash had helped Daisy pull the stairs down, they climbed into a dark dusty room. Daisy had found the light switch and was surprised when the lights still worked. The room was revealed to be a bit old fashioned, with bare wooden floors and wooden walls with no windows. It had a ceiling fan, although it was covered in dust bunnies, and the wood that it was made out of was worn with age and nonuse. There was an old TV that Ash hadn't seen in years, he knew the brand didn't even make those types of TVs anymore. It too was covered with so much dust that the black color had looked more like gray. It was on an old dresser along with an old radio that also probably didn't work anymore. All the floor had to show was dents and weak points saturated with tiny holes, but it was still sturdy enough to hold Ash and Daisy. There was a light brown recliner chair in the far corner of the room that was surprisingly still intact and not as dusty as it should be. Finally there were a few boxes on floor, and Daisy knelt down to one of them and opened the lid carefully, as if she was afraid of damaging something valuable.

She smiled as she pulled out another small black box and showed it to Ash. "Inside this you might find a bit of what you're looking for," she murmured. Ash carefully took the box and held it in his hands. Daisy watched as he sat on the ground and opened the lid.

Ash widened his eyes, being a bit confused on what he was seeing. "All of these…are drawings." Inside were many were many sheets of multicolored paper, each with a certain childlike drawing. Each had either one stick figured human or many, and every one contained a certain water pokemon—from Staryu to Vaporeon—but the only thing that they all had in common was a drawing of a woman in a pink dress with long orange hair.

"Daisy what is all this anyway?" Ash asked.

She laughed. "Of course you wouldn't recognize Misty's own drawings. She did them when she was very little, and our mother kept each and every one."

"Really? All of them?"

Daisy nodded. "There's other stuff in there too, like birthday cards and holiday cards, and even old and withered flowers. Mother kept everything that Misty gave to her. Don't tell anyone, but I think Misty was her favorite, because of her love for pokemon at an early age. I mean we liked pokemon too, but there was something different about Misty…I could never put my finger on it, but it just seemed like water pokemon loved her. Well anyway, that's everything Misty gave to mother before she passed, I don't know if she gave anything to dad though."

"So I'm guessing this woman with the pink dress and orange hair is Misty's mom?"

Daisy nodded again. "Yep. Mom was pretty much the opposite of Misty. Although who knows she might have been a tomboy when she was younger," she giggled.

"Does Misty know about this?" Ash asked next.

Daisy sadly shook her head. "There were so many times I wanted to tell her, but I was afraid. She went through such a difficult life when she was younger and I thought that if I brought her up here it would bring back painful memories for her. I was so afraid of making things worse and pushing her over the edge that I couldn't say much to her without her bursting into tears." She dusted herself off as she sat up. "This room was mother's place to come and meditate alone. Only dad and I knew about it." She slowly walked to the chair and sat down, after dusting some of the cobwebs off. She looked at the ceiling and sighed slowly. "I often wondered what she thought about when she sat here…"

"Daisy…" Ash spoke slowly, speaking his idea as it came to him. "What if we…give Misty this for Christmas. You know…this," he said holding up one of the old drawings, "If we somehow show Misty that her mother and father were thinking about her, that she was always loved by them, that there's no need to be so distant anymore…we could do this for her, Daisy. We can give her the closure she's been wanting all this time."

Daisy looked at Ash and began to frown. "I don't know Ash, things might get bad if she sees all this."

"But don't you think she should know Daisy?" Ash stood up now and looked around, taking in the scenery once again. "All of this…these drawings…Misty should know about them, she has to know! If she doesn't, she's going to go through her whole life wondering what her mother really thought about her. I'm sure Misty knows she was loved but she wants to see it, to feel it and touch it and know it's there! I know she might get pissed that this was here the whole time, but she might not. I think she really needs to know, and besides I think she's gotten a lot stronger over these past few years, don't you think so?" He clinched his left fist and looked down to it. "About two years ago I made Misty a promise. I promised her that if she ever felt like she can't go on, then I would be there for her, and wouldn't let her fall down that same path she did all those years ago. Trust me Daisy, she'll be fine. I will take care of her, even if I die trying."

Daisy looked up at him. She saw his determination in his eyes, and he could see the love that he had for her radiating like the rays of the sun. _So this is what it's like…_she repeated to herself. _To have a man care for you like this…this is what it's really like…_Daisy smiled. _Misty is such a lucky woman._

She stood from the chair and nodded. "Ash, leave it to me. If you want to do this then I'm with you. I must learn to trust in Misty's strength." She nodded again to make herself sure of this. "Don't worry, we'll make this the best Christmas Misty's ever had."

Ash flashed a bright smile. "Thanks Daisy. Maybe we could get everyone else to help too. I already have a plan to make this work out perfectly."

* * *

A few weeks later had found a happy Delia Ketchum humming Christmas music on Christmas Eve. The holidays had always made her happy, but she was especially happy today. She kept humming in a high tune as she dusted her living room table.

_It's not often that I get Ash to myself for Christmas since his journey started. I had a wonderful two years with him, but now that he's getting married, he would obviously have to spend the holidays with Misty more than me…_

She began to tear up at this but quickly wiped her tears away. _No I won't do this, not tonight. I promised I wouldn't cry again until the wedding._ She giggled a little. She still found it hard to believe that Ash was actually settling down and getting married, even though he has been engaged for about six or seven months now.

_Just a few more weeks,_ she reminded herself. _It won't be long now._

As if Ash could hear motherly thoughts, he came bounding down the stairs a few seconds later yelling for his mom in a childish whiny voice.

Delia giggled, turning around after cleaning a clock on the table. Her slight giggles turned into hard laughter as she looked upon her son. There was Ash, with a hopeless look on his face, covered with pieces of tape and wrapping paper on his hands and clothes, and even a piece of tape sticking out of his messy hair.

"Mom don't laugh. I need help here!"

"Yes you do sweetheart," she gasped between bursts of laughter. She walked over to him and pulled the tape out of his hair. "Having fun wrapping presents dear?"

Ash tried to give an irritated look but only ended up smiling, "We were trying to wrap Misty's present, but I'm not good at wrapping stuff."

"We?" Delia questioned, but then noticed Pikachu standing behind him, trying to get untangled from a mess of pink and blue paper wrapped around him. "Are you sure you aren't giving Pikachu to Misty as a present instead?" She laughed again.

Ash sighed. "Darn for a second I thought Pikachu was lost in the paper world," he laughed. He handed his mom a small blue box. "Do you mind wrapping this? You aren't busy are you?"

Delia giggled. "For you, honey, never."

_Well, I'm glad to know that he still needs my help for some things._ Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Oh that must be Misty—hide this quick!" Ash hopped down the last few steps and opened the door for Misty. He forgot that he still had tape and blue wrapping paper on his body and received a laugh at the door from Misty.

"Are you wrapping yourself for me as a present? Darn and here I thought I was getting something a whole lot better," she laughed.

He rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, "Oh very funny, you should be a comedian Mist. Get in already, it's freezing!"

Misty smiled as she came in from the cold, taking off her scarf in the process. "I'm sorry to intrude on you guys like this. The last thing I was expecting was for everyone to leave the gym at the last minute," she said bitterly. She was actually hoping to spend a Christmas with all of her sisters this year, since it would be the first one they would have spent together in a long time.

"Oh don't worry about it honey," Delia said. She had just walked out from her bedroom with a paper-free Pikachu in her arms. "We're glad to have you here!"

"Pikachupi!" Pikachu leapt out of Delia's arms and into Misty's.

Misty smiled down at the small rodent. "Hello, Pikachu, hope you're having a happy Christmas!"

"Pika!" he cheered happily.

"Besides," Ash added, "There's no way I would let my baby spend Christmas all alone." He kissed her cheek.

"Well I guess I can't argue besides it's going to snow here tomorrow and I want to see it! It makes me so excited!" Misty replied, elated.

"Oh me too, I love snow and I haven't seen so much in a while," Delia agreed. Ash and Misty watched her for a moment as she fondly remembered a part of her past. "Ah, well, don't worry we'll have lots of fun! Oh I should start on that cake now, Ash try not to annoy Misty too much," she giggled.

"Don't worry mom I don't annoy her as much as I used to," Ash laughed.

"Ha, I don't know about that," Misty joked. Delia smiled and began to hum again as she dashed off into the kitchen.

"Well, what to see what's on tv? I think there's a pokemon match on," Ash said as he went to sit on the couch. Misty was still holding Pikachu and sat down next to him.

"Ash…? Do you think your mom still thinks about your dad around this time of year?" she asked.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "She thinks of him every day. Why do you ask?"

"Around the holidays…it must be so tough to think of people that aren't here," she murmured. "I wonder if the dead know we think about them? What would they say I wonder?"

Ash casted his eyes down. "Misty…?"

Misty shook her head. "Never mind me I'm just thinking that's all. I wonder if your mom needs any help in the kitchen." With that she got up and walked in, eager to get away from Ash's worried eyes.

Pikachu hopped back on to Ash's shoulder. "Pikapi?" He tilted his head a bit to the right in confusion.

Ash absentmindedly petted Pikachu on the head, still looking at the kitchen where Misty just walked in. "Don't worry about it, Pikachu. I guess we'll figure out what that was all about later on."

* * *

Later on in the night, Delia had sent everyone to bed early, saying something about giving Santa Claus enough time to put everyone's presents under the Christmas tree. Ash and Misty laughed about it, but went to bed anyway, since it was after 11pm. They slept in Ash's room, but he had given Misty his bed while him and Pikachu had a makeshift cot in the middle of the floor. As they both laid there in their beds, both found themselves unable to go to sleep and ended up looking at the ceiling with their hands behind their heads.

_I wonder what Misty is thinking about…_Ash took a glance at her. _She's been in a daze ever since she came here, and she hasn't been talking much, even now. I can't help but be worried, I love her so much, and I know something's wrong that she's not talking about._

Less than five feet away from Ash, Misty was off into a mess of thoughts, many of which she hasn't been able to control since she walked into the Ketchum household a few hours earlier. _I wonder why did my sisters leave? Do they really hate me so much that they can't even stand to be with me for more than a few months, and on Christmas of all holidays? Guess I can't blame them, it's been literally years since we spent any holiday as a family…of course they wouldn't want to be with me. What's wrong with me? I'm not that horrible am I? If Ash can tolerate me, then why can't I? After all these years, why do I still have issues with who I am? Ash…I haven't talked to him all night. He's probably mad at me. This is Christmas Eve after all, but I haven't even acknowledged it much. Poor Ash, I always neglect him. Why is he even marrying me? He must be insane. Delia…I wonder how she is holding up? I didn't ask her about her late husband but I can tell she's thinking about him. I wonder what things would be like if he was alive…if my parents were alive would they be like? What would I be like? Can people really change a person that much?_

She heard Ash give a light sigh which interrupted her from her thoughts. She snuggled in closer to the blue sheets that covered the mattress and slowly turned to him. "Ash, are you awake?"

Ash didn't turn his head to answer her question, but answered it anyway. "Yeah I am Mist."

She weakly smiled. _Well, at least he's still calling me by my nickname. He's not pissed then._ "You can't sleep?"

Ash shook his head. "Nah," he turned his head to the right to face her, "You too?"

Misty nodded. "Ever since I was little Christmas always had me excited."

"Me too." He turned his entire body on his side now. "I always remember waking up to the smell of chocolate chip cookies, and the living room always seems a little brighter than it was the night before."

Misty's smile fell. "That must be nice." She didn't mean to say that out loud but it came out before she could even think twice. _Darn, now he's going to ask what I meant…_

To her surprise however, Ash didn't but she could see his eyes flash with sorrow for a split second. He decided to change the subject, "So are you going straight back to the gym after tomorrow?"

Misty shook her head. "If it's ok, I want to stay a little while longer with you. I'm in no hurry to get back to working."

Ash chuckled. "Good. I would love it if you stayed with me—I mean us."

Misty smiled, but she felt fresh tears coming to her eyes and turned around quickly before Ash could see them.

"Misty?" he wondered in alarm.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "My eyes just started burning for some reason. No need to worry about me."

She didn't hear anything from him for a few minutes and figured he wasn't going to push it. She had let out a strangled breath in relief but unexpectantly inhaled it back in quickly when she felt something move beside her. She slowly turned around to see Ash laying in bed next to her.

"A-Ash?"

He smiled slightly. "Just to show you I'm here if you need me," he whispered as he placed his left arm around her waist.

Her random rambling thoughts flashed back to the last time her love said those words, then without any warning, she burst into tears, covering her face with both hands as she sobbed into them. Ash was a bit startled but wrapped his arms around her. He didn't say a word as she cried on his shoulder and her body shook in his arms. Ash remembered this scene, but honestly didn't expect it. He knew depression was always a hard thing to cure, but he didn't expect Misty to cry with such sorrow. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't no matter how hard he tried. All he could do was to bring her body as close to his as possible and laid his head on hers.

_I'm kind of glad Pikachu is asleep_, Ash thought. _I think I'm beginning to cry too…_

They both cried together, deep in each other's arms, for around ten minutes. Misty finally looked up to realize her soul mate's tears were in her hair.

"Ash? Why are you crying?" she asked.

Ash gritted his teeth and then finally said what he wanted to say all night. "Misty…why don't you ever tell me when you're feeling this way? Can't you see I want to help you? I love you, and I can tell when you're hurt or sad or angry, so why can't you tell me when you're depressed? You know I won't tell anyone…"

"Ash…" Misty interrupted. "I-I wanted to, really, but I just didn't want to burden you again. People get tired of those who are depressed. They want happiness in their lives, and I don't blame them. There's so much hatred and cruelty in this world, who wouldn't want to be happy? I couldn't put you through that, not again, I promised myself I wouldn't."

Ash rubbed his hand in her head as she talked. He felt his fingers go though her long orange strands and rest on her back before going back up to the top of her head and starting the whole process over. "God Misty, you sound just like mom. She always felt that way too. She began to kill herself because she thought she wasn't doing a good job of taking care of me, and she didn't want to burden me with her illness from the loss of dad. I wish people wouldn't feel like they have to protect me from everything. I am an adult now I can handle things better than I could when I was ten or eleven. Misty, I love you and I don't want you to ever feel like you have to hide things from me. I'm not helping you because I feel like it, and I'm not marrying you because I feel like it either. I'm marrying you because I love you and I'm helping you because I want to. There's nothing I rather do with my life than be with you."

Misty smiled a little. "What about training? Isn't that more important?"

Ash smiled back. "Nothing is more important than you. I wouldn't even be a trainer right now if it wasn't for you and your 'advice'."

They both laughed. "You know I didn't mean to hit you so many times back then," Misty said.

"I know. Those were just love licks right?" Ash laughed again.

Misty smiled as she felt herself melting in Ash's strong arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist and said, "Ash I'm sorry. I get just so used to do things on my own, especially stuff like this, and I'm always neglecting you…"

"You're fine Misty, really," Ash interrupted. "It's true that you don't have to tell me anything you feel you don't want to tell me, but if you ever need anyone to talk to, I want the first one you talk to to be me. You can tell me anything Misty, really."

"Well then now that you're mentioning it I should tell you something."

"What is it?" Ash asked.

"I love you." She tilted her head up to kiss his lips and she felt herself shiver again, this time not from sadness, but from pure excitement. She felt satisfied hearing him moan as she lightly sucked his lower lip. She was also happy that for the first time during the night, all of her thoughts were on him. Her leg began to subconsciously rub on his, causing Ash to pull away in surprise.

"Ash…" she breathed.

"Misty…I—I don't think we should do this…" Ash began.

Her eyes widened. "Do what, Ash?"

"This: us in bed together, wrapped around each other like this. It's just I don't want to do anything we might regret."

As Misty was about to ask what would they do she realized her right leg was draped over Ash's legs. "Oh!" She hurriedly pulled her leg away, turning crimson from embarrassment. "I'm sorry…I hate being so emotional like this."

"It's ok," Ash murmured still surprised that he couldn't release Misty from his hold on her just yet. "I'm emotional all the time."

Misty shook her head. "No you're not. You're a lot stronger than me."

"Oh really? This comes from the scrawny girl that kicked me in my sleeping bag every morning to wake me up." They both laughed again.

Misty couldn't help but get distracted at this moment, this time from the light of the moon shining through Ash's window. She knew it must have been at least after midnight. She giggled to herself.

"What's so funny?" Ash asked.

Misty snuggled deeper into Ash's chest. "I think this is the first Christmas we spent like this. I didn't know I could get this close to you."

Ash began to wonder if she meant physically or mentally, but Misty cut him off once again from his train of thoughts.

"Merry Christmas Ash, I love you," Misty whispered.

Ash slowly felt his eyes close to take him off to dream world. "Merry Christmas Misty, I love you too."

* * *

Ash bounced up the stairs early Christmas morning. It was a miracle that he was up before 9am, especially on days that he wasn't training, but of course today was a special occasion. As he walked in his room to wake up Misty, he wasn't surprised that she was awake and dressed already. She didn't see him walk in because she was looking out the window, so he took the opportunity to admire her outfit.

She was wearing a very appropriate red and white skirt outfit, a long red skirt with white cotton ends reached down to her knees, while the rest of her legs were covered with red pants that stopped just short of her regular red tennis shoes. The skirt outfit was long sleeved, but also managed to cover nearly half of her neck, which was also shadowed by her long flowing orange hair. Ash stared at it so much he began to wonder if it was tight on her, since it accentuated her curves perfectly, but then shook his head out of slight embarrassment.

_Gosh Ash, could you not act like Brock this early in the morning? You already had a tough enough time controlling yourself last night for goodness sake._

He cleared his throat, "Uhm, Misty—"

"It's cloudy outside," she interrupted, "You think it's going to snow today?"

"Well it was in the forecast," he replied, "Hey how long did you know I was standing behind you?"

"As soon as I saw you come in by the reflection on this window," she turned around and smiled, revealing more of her Santa suit. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it's impolite to stare?"

"Oh, shut up like you never did it," he rolled his eyes, unable to stop the heavy blush staining his cheeks.

Misty giggled. "Merry Christmas Ash. You were right, I woke up to the smell of your mother's cookies. I almost forgot how good a mother's cooking was."

Ash smiled. "C'mon Corsola, I got a present for you downstairs." He grabbed her hand and led her downstairs. "You know, you are really beautiful today. I didn't know tomboys looked so good in red skirts."

Misty playfully smacked him on the back of his head. "You are so lucky you're mother is up or I would get you for that."

Ash began to laugh, when a female voice could be heard at the bottom of the stairs, effectively scolding her. "Misty I see you're already causing trouble early in the morning, and on Christmas day of all days!"

Misty looked down the steps to see a pleasant surprise. "Daisy, Lily, Violet, Kai! You're all here!" She ran over to them where they were sitting on the light brown couch and gave them all hugs. "What are you all doing here? I thought you were off to Trovita Island or something."

"We were," Lily spoke up, "but then we realized we couldn't leave without wishing our dear little sister a merry Christmas! Besides we forgot to give you your presents!"

Misty smile fell slightly. "But I didn't know you all were coming here, I would have brought the presents I got for you."

"Oh it's alright, Misty," Daisy spoke, "This is for you not for us."

Ash took her hand. "Come on you can sit by me." He led her to the couch and sat next to Daisy. Pikachu instantly jumped into Misty's lap and allowed her to hold him. Kai was sitting in a dark brown recliner with Violet in his lap, and Lily was sitting in another chair a few feet away.

"Oh this is so nice, everyone is together on Christmas day!" Delia said. "I'll go get you all some of my cookies and since you all are here I'm going to bake some more as well." She dashed once again into the kitchen, humming another Christmas tune.

Misty giggled as she laid her head on Ash's shoulder. "She always keeps herself so busy."

"I can't wait to taste her cookies though," Kai remarked, "As we came in I saw Ash stuffing his face with about twenty of them."

Ash laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

Daisy smiled, "Well let's get started. Misty you should open my present first." Misty happily accepted the older sister's present, decorated with yellow wrapping paper adorned with yellow and white daffodils.

Misty noticed the rectangular shape right away. _She must have given me a book, since she knows how much I love to read. _As she tore open the paper her suspicions were correct: it was a thick book with purple felt fabric as the hardback covers. The spine of the book was bare besides a long notebook wire and yellow string holding the thick book together. The front cover only had Misty's name on it, which was done with a gold color thread that was sewed into the fabric. Misty nearly squealed in delight: "Daisy did you make this?" she asked.

Daisy happily nodded. "I sure did. It took me a while but I finally managed to pull it off. Not bad considering I haven't sewed anything in a while. Go on ahead and open it."

Misty did just that, and was shocked beyond belief over the very first page she saw. "Th-This is…" she whispered. "This is…mine…my drawing…" She looked upon an old picture she thought she would never see again, a white sheet of typing paper that had a stick figured orange-haired woman beside a star-shaped pokemon with a circle-shaped gem in the center of its body. Under these two figures were the words: Mommy and Staru. Misty laughed at her terrible spelling. "Daisy…I can't believe this…"

"I found it. There's more in that book too, which is why it's so thick," Daisy replied.

Misty turned the pages to find out Daisy was right, many more drawings graced the pages, along with cards, flowers, and even little hearts made out of paper. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "Daisy…how did you find all of this?"

"Long story short they were in the attic in a small box. Mother had kept every picture and item you made for her," Daisy answered.

"We have an attic?!" the other girls asked, which caused Daisy to giggle.

"I'll show you all later."

Misty shook her head. "She really kept everything? I made most of this stuff when I was three, even I hardly remember it all. I can't believe she really kept it all…"

Daisy smiled. "She would always say the same thing whenever you gave her something, do you remember? She said: Oh sweetheart this is lovely I'll cherish it forever!" She laughed, "Well she kept every single thing and put it in a small box. She loved you a whole lot, Misty."

Misty smiled softly. She looked at the book again, letting the tears fall on the pages. "Daisy…thank you."

"Ok enough of the mushy stuff," Lily replied. "My present is next, and it was crafted by moi." She bowed gracefully as she gave her white wrapped present to Misty. "Of course you'll love it because who wouldn't love something created by yours truly!"

"Don't be a show off Lily," Daisy warned, "It makes you look less attractive."

"You're just jealous you don't have my artistic talent!"

"This isn't a competition you know!" Daisy shot back.

Lily was about to reply back but was stopped by a gasp from Misty. In her hands was a medium sized wooden picture frame, inside was a small canvas with two lifelike images panted on it.

"Is this…mom and dad?" Misty wondered aloud. Ash leaned over her shoulder to take a closer look at the photograph.

"Wow you really do look just like your mother," Ash remarked, "but it looks like you have your dad's nose."

Misty laughed, "You think so?"

Lily, proud of her work, couldn't help but explain how she ended up making the picture. "You see, Misty, I had found an old picture of mom and dad standing next to each other just like that one day when I was cleaning out my room. I was going to blow it up and give it to you like that, but since I wanted to show you I still haven't lost my touch when it came to drawing, I just recreated the photo for you! It took me a while to get all the details, but I know it came out perfect—"

She was interrupted by a brief hug from Misty. "Thank you Lily. I love it, it's really beautiful." Lily smiled and hugged her back. It was at this moment that Delia came in to the living room, with a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies in her hands.

"Aww isn't that sweet. Who wants cookies?" she said with a bit of a singing voice.

"I do!" Ash yelled but Delia stopped him.

"Not you, you had more than your fair share," she replied as she placed the plate on the table. "Misty are those your parents in that photo? Gosh you look just like your mother."

Misty giggled. "Thank you Ms—I mean thank you Delia." Even though she was told months ago that she had no need to call Delia Ms. Ketchum any more, she still had a hard time breaking the habit. As she sat back down and gazed at the picture, her thoughts wandered to what she had thought of last night before she went to bed: _I wonder what would the dead spirits say if they knew we thought about them? Are they communicating…through Daisy and Lily?_

Breaking her from her thoughts was the sight of a blue colored gift in her line of vision. Surprised, Misty looked up to see Violet looking at her. "It isn't much, but I knew I had to give this to you." There was a stunned awkward silence as she walked back to where Kai was sitting. "Well, aren't you going to open it?"

Misty ripped the paper off with excitement to reveal a long brown envelope. With curiosity building, she opened the small metal flaps and pulled out a small stack of stapled white papers. It only took a few seconds of reading to realize what she was holding.

Ash noticed it as well. "Hey, that's the deed to the gym!"

Violet began to blush a little. "Heheh, well…you see…" she looked to Kai who nodded and she continued: "To be perfectly honest with you Misty, I hated it so much when I lost to you two years ago. I wanted to do anything I could to make you suffer, so I took the deed to the gym. But being away from everything for a while made me realize just how childish I was acting. I wanted to make up for it…and for everything else."

Misty had a bit of a disgruntled look but Violet continued.

"You see the truth is…I was jealous of you, Misty."

"Jealous?" Misty repeated.

Violet nodded. "I was always jealous of you. Ever since you were born it was like mom and dad paid more attention to you than the rest of us, and then when they died, I was just so angry I just need something to take it out on. In my frustration, I chose you. I neglected you for so long, I got used to it, I accepted it, I even got others like Lily involved in it. After all this time, I now understand how foolish I've been all this time, and I guess what I want to say is…I'm sorry…I'm sorry for everything I've done."

Violet could see Misty's eyes widen but she had to say this, otherwise she knew she would never gain the courage to say it again. "I just felt so angry back then, I needed something, anything to make me feel a least a little better—and I didn't care if I had hurt you in the process. I know it was awful of me, but I was so naïve then, and I hate myself for being that way. But now I know I was wrong, and I want to make it up to you. That deed was the only thing I had left of my parents, or so I thought. But they left so much more for us, and I couldn't realize it until later on. The things I was holding on to were only physical, but the most important things are the emotional feelings that I had for them, the precious sweet memories that I will always have for them. It was then I remembered that you don't have many memories of mom and dad so I knew I had to give that deed back to you. The gym is rightfully yours and no one can argue with you on that, not even if they wanted to. Anyway…this is my first step of moving on now, and if it also brings us closer as well then I'm happy to do it. Because we're sisters, Misty, we're family, and I think our parents would have wanted us to show our love and appreciation for one another. Don't you think it's time for us to move on and actually be sisters for once?"

Throughout Violet's entire monologue Misty's expression changed constantly. It went from surprised, to shocked, to sad, to a calm stillness that no one could read. She held her head down, her hair shielding her eyes, her body held close to Pikachu's body by her arms. It was a weird silence, and for a minute or so it seemed like no one even dared to breathe. Pikachu finally looked up at the young woman and quietly asked if she was ok. Then Ash placed a hand on her back and began to move it in an up and down motion.

"Misty?" he asked, "Are you ok?"

It was at this that her body began to shake, Violet casted a nervous look to Kai, who gave a worried look to Daisy, who gave a frightened look to Ash. She gripped his shoulder, afraid that her worst fears were going to come true.

Violet made a brave move and walked to her slowly. She knelt down in front of her and used a shaky hand to touch her knee. "Misty?"

Finally Misty slowly looked to Violet, her eyes were saturated with tears and her body stopped shaking. Her lips quivered, and her cheeks were rosy, but she managed to choke out, "Oh Violet…thank you!"

"Huh?" Violet leaned back a little in surprise.

"Oh Violet for the past fifteen years that's all I wanted to hear you say to me. When mom and dad died when I was four you were so angry, and when I asked you why you told me you were mad at me for killing mom and dad. You called me a murder and hated me from that moment on. I hated you so much for treating me so horribly, but as I grew older I realized that it wasn't my fault what had happened back then. But I didn't want to just think that, I wanted to hear it and feel it in my heart. I had so much hatred for myself and this world that I just felt I didn't belong anymore. I wanted to go away…I wanted…I wanted…" Misty couldn't continue anymore, due the fact that the tears were streaming down her face like a rushing river, and she had gotten so choked up that she couldn't finish her sentence. Ash wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head once again into his shoulder.

Violet eyes widened, wondering what Misty was getting to she asked Daisy: "Daisy what is she talking about? What does she mean by that?"

Daisy sighed. She put her head down and shook her head. Violet looked back to Misty, who was trying to wipe the tears from her eyes with both hands, but fresh ones fell as soon as she wiped the old ones away.

Finally she found her voice again, "I wanted to die, Violet. I used to think that if I was dead, you wouldn't be mad anymore and our parents would come back. It was all I could think about at the time, so I—I would try to take my own life."

Everyone gasped in surprise, except for Ash and Daisy since they already knew about this startling revelation. "You did? When?" Lily asked.

Misty's body shook again, "From the time I was eight until I was ten," she answered.

Lily gasped again, realizing the correlation between that time frame and how she was back then. "Oh my gosh, Violet that's when we were the worst to her!"

"Dear heavens…" Violet whispered. "Misty I'm so sorry! If only I knew what you were doing to yourself I would have stopped! I promise I would have! Oh Misty I love you so much and if only I wasn't so damn selfish…you wouldn't have done all of those things. To think that you almost…you could have…" Violet began to cry now, beginning to understand that she almost lost her sister due to her harsh cruel words that she used to say. "I feel so awful."

The tears finally stopped, and all of a sudden she felt a little better. Misty looked at the papers in her hands and then back at her older sister. "You shouldn't, none of us should, after all we were all innocent and foolish back then you had no control over your actions and neither did I. We let our emotions get the better of us."

"But—but—" Violet began but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

Misty shook her head and began to smile. "I forgive you, Violet. Now that you finally have wised up and told me that my parents' death wasn't my fault I can finally move on the way I want to, and you can move on too right?"

Violet nodded. "I can little sister. I know I can just like you can."

* * *

Later on that cold winter's day, Misty took Pikachu with her to the supermarket in the small town of Pallet, running an errand for Delia to get a few more groceries. "I'm glad you decided to come along with me Pikachu," Misty said. "I would have been a bit lonely going by myself, but don't tell anyone else that."

"Pi Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed happily to the small promise. Misty laughed.

"It's been a great Christmas don't you think so? In fact I think this has been the best Christmas ever! All this time I thought I could only rely on myself, but now I know for sure that I have a great boyfriend and family that I can also rely on! And of course, I can't forget you Pikachu, my favorite little electric type."

"Pikachu pika Pikachu," Pikachu replied, taking its tiny fist and slightly beating it on his chest.

"Ha ha ha, of course I am, he says, Pikachu I think you might be turning into Lily." She laughed. Pikachu giggled, blushing slightly. She adjusted the bags in her hands slightly, feeling the weight of the bags pulling her down after about thirty minutes of walking. A chill in the air had breezed through between the traveling gym leader and the tiny rodent perched on her shoulder, and caused Pikachu to hide underneath Misty's hair—or at least it tried to. "I'm afraid my hair isn't that long, Pikachu," she laughed. She shivered slightly, her shoulders beginning to tense, and looked at the clouds hanging low in the sky.

"It's definitely going to snow," she confirmed. "I can't wait to see it."

"Need some help little sister?"

Misty took her eyes off of the overcast sky to see her sister Daisy standing in front of her. Misty smiled. "Thanks but I can handle it." She began to walk ahead but then remembered her secret promise to herself to be a bit more open with everyone. She turned her head around to face her. "Actually, here you take a bag, my hands are a bit strained."

Daisy gave a sly smile. "I thought so." She took the bag and held it in her right hand, then continued to walk back to Ash's house side by side with Misty and Pikachu. "So Misty, how did you like your gifts today?"

"They were really great and thoughtful, Daisy, thank you guys so much for them," Misty responded.

Daisy shook her head in opposition, "Nope, there's no need to thank me you should thank Ash instead."

"Ash?"

"Pikapi?" Pikachu repeated.

"Yep, a few weeks ago he came to me asking for a favor. He said that he wanted you to get closer to our parents due the fact that you have been talking about them a lot lately. I know the holidays must be tough on you, especially knowing the fact that you can't spend any time with them. So the girls and I wanted to give you our memories of our parents, since you were so young when they died compared to us. Ash knew that our memories would not only make you closer with their spirits but also would give you a chance to know more about them. At least you can have a little comfort in knowing how much they meant to you before they died." Running out of things to say Daisy shifted her eyes nervously to the ground and exhaled deeply. "So yeah it was Ash's idea…"

Misty laughed. "That's just like him. He's knows my emotions so much it startles me. The crazy thing is I never have to tell him much he just knows. I don't know if I can ever be that way with him. In fact a few months after he proposed I kept thinking that maybe I wasn't good enough for him. I wanted to call it off."

"Really?" Daisy looked into her sister's eyes with surprise. "Don't think that way Misty, you're a really great person!"

"Apparently Ash thinks so too. I didn't even have a chance to tell him how I felt, he just knew. He took me by the hand one day, and led me to a pond not too far away from the church we're getting married in. I sat down next to him and he said: don't worry about a thing, Misty, I'm going to be here for you always to show you just how much you mean to me!" She laughed happily, her voice brimming with love. "He always knew just what to say, even if he goes about it in a stupid way."

Daisy smiled. "You have a great man, Misty. I know he will take care of you."

Misty nodded. "So do I, and I will do my best to take care of him."

* * *

Later on in the night Ash and Misty were sitting under the moonlight of the night beside the window in Ash's room. Everything was quiet and still and not even the sound of Rattata underneath the floorboards could be heard. The young couple sat by Ash's bed, too excited to see the snow to go to sleep. Unfortunately the forecast had been moved back a few hours, and everyone else guests and family included would probably be asleep when the first snowflakes would begin to fall.

Misty's head was placed on Ash's shoulder and Pikachu had already fallen asleep in Ash's lap. Ash laid his head back on the edge of the bed and closed his eyes. "So did you really like the way everything turned out today?" he whispered to his bride to be.

Misty hummed a medium pitched sound in approval. "You're so wonderful to me."

"Are you still awake?" He asked next.

"Yes I am," Misty answered.

"Good. I want to give you a late gift. Mom had it in her room and had forgotten about it until after dinner."

Misty began to raise her head. "Another present? Ash your thoughtfulness is more than enough for me, besides I don't deserve another gift."

Ash shook his head in disagreement. "I only wish I could give you more." He reached into his jacket pocket, which was laid on the floor beside him, and pulled out a small box covered with blue and white wrapping paper. "It's a little late but merry Christmas."

Misty took the small token from her future husband. "I thought I told you I didn't want jewelry," she smiled sweetly.

"Too bad you got it," Ash chuckled. "Just open it."

Misty sighed, but she couldn't hide the fact that she was happy about it. She tore open the paper carefully and opened the little box. "Oh wow Ash…" she whispered.

Inside that little blue box was a pair of earrings, but Misty's cerulean eyes weren't just gazing on any pair of earrings. They were a pair of silver earrings, featuring the pokemon Vaporeon in a sitting position, dangling from a little chain attached to a silver loop where it would connect with the lucky woman's ear. Embedded in the chain was a small bow just above the Vaporeon, lined with crystal and cubic zirconia.

"Ash they're beautiful! Oh this must have cost you a fortune," she said in a loud hush.

"Not really," Ash smiled. "They were my mother's."

Seeing Misty's surprised look he elaborated, "I was looking for gifts to give you a few weeks ago when mom found those hidden somewhere in her room. She said dad had given them to her, and I could give them to you if I wanted to. I was against it at first, but after I got them cleaned and they looked so pretty I couldn't help but keep them. Then I was told that they were rare earrings that had stopped being produced about twenty years ago, so only a few were ever made. I know you don't really like hand-me-downs, but these earrings came from my heart because they reminded me of you. But I understand if you don't want to wear them and you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Ash, don't be silly I would love to wear them! These are beautiful and of course Vaporeon is my favorite water type," she replied.

"But I thought Gyarados was your favorite." Ash said, smiling a little more and allowing his cheeks to turn red at the thought that his present was accepted happily.

Misty giggled. "Well today it's Vaporeon. Gyarados was last week."

"I'm glad you like it Misty."

"I love everything you give to me."

Ash wrapped one of his arms around Misty's body, enveloping her neck and shoulders and allowing his hand to rest lazily on her arm. They both looked out the window at that instant and were happy to finally see the first snowflakes of winter beginning to fall. They spoke no words, for they already understood each other's hearts. They gave each other warm looks of bliss then continued back to watching the snow fall freely to mingle with the ground below. Misty placed one of her arms around the front part of Ash's waist while another arm swung around his back. Then she snuggled her nose into the crook of his neck and exhaled softly. Ash looked at her comfortable position and kissed her forehead, then went back to admiring the flurries of snow. They would soon fall asleep in that position about fifteen minutes later.

Meanwhile downstairs Delia was tucked safely in her room, but like Ash and Misty she wasn't in her bed, but in a wooden rocking chair seated by the window. Also like Ash and Misty she saw the December snow fall and smiled. She sighed, raising her hands up and interlacing the fingers around in a praying position. She then placed her forehead slightly on her fingers and said a silent prayer that only she and the spirits would hear:

"I hope you're looking at the snowflakes as well my dear. I hope you're feeling as warm and happy as I am at this moment, I hope that you can hear me just as well as I can hear you. Be safe my love, may we see each other soon." She lifted her head and gazed at the ceiling, although the ceiling was the last thing she was looking at. "I pray you're still waiting for me, for I have never forgotten about you…Jo."

* * *

Well that's it for this chapter and I hope you all liked it. Unfortunately I don't have many ideas for the next chapter so I'm going to have to think a bit before I can post that one. Hopefully I'll be done with this story by the beginning of the new year. That being said I hope you all have a great Christmas and a happy new year! Please let me know what you all thought of it and I'll see you all again in 2013!


	9. Chapter 9: A Family Affair

Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update, I started back at school and well...school sucks ha ha ha. Anyway I'm sure you all don't want to hear my troubles so I'll just let you all know that for the most part I have finished this story. The chapters get longer from here so I hope you're ready for it! Also since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, which I actually forgot about, I'll try to post the rest of the story then. As a piece of good news I'm taking a techinical writing class so hopefully my writing is a bit better. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9: A Family Affair

"Are you sure you can't stay with us a little while longer?" Ash asked, holding his love in his arms. Today was the day that Misty was finally going back to the gym, after taking nearly a week off for Christmas break.

"I have to, it's been too long I've been away from the gym, and you know how Daisy gets on days that she's lazy…" she giggled. "But you need to start looking for apartments for us. Are you sure you want to live in Cerulean?"

"Of course, I can't take up your roots to the gym. Besides, you might not want to admit it, but you don't want to leave your sisters behind for very long."

Misty sighed and folded her arms, "Well they are useless without me," she said defiantly. Ash rolled his eyes and placed his head on her shoulder.

"And they say I have a big head. It's nothing compared to your ego," he replied.

Misty smacked her lips and pushed Ash off of her body. "You're lucky I have to leave soon." She picked Pikachu off the ground and held him in his arms. "Pika, remember our promise, you make sure Ash doesn't go crazy and fills his head with nonsense like he always does."

"Pikachu!" the mouse raised a paw up in understanding.

Ash was about to make an arrogant remark but was stopped by a singing voice downstairs. "Ash my love, come down here I have a surprise for you!"

"A surprise? I love surprises!" Ash bounced out of the room like a five year old on Christmas day, and all that could be heard was a loud stomping down the stairs and his booming voice calling for Misty. "Misty, Pikachu hurry up you got to see this!"

Misty laughed heartedly, "Well, Pikachu, might as well see what's so great down there." She felt Pikachu nod and proceeded downstairs onto the yard outside. As she stepped out onto the fresh snow she realized that biking home might be a bit harder than she thought; she also noticed a large black van in the driveway where Ash and Delia were. She slowly walked over, relishing in the sound of the snow crunching under her feet, and wanted to hear Delia's voice without getting caught eavesdropping.

"Oh it's so great to see you all again!" She leaned into the passenger's side of the car. "I almost thought you wouldn't be able to make it for the wedding since I didn't hear back from you. And it's been so long since Ash has seen his cousins."

"Cousins?" Misty whispered to herself. Pikachu perked up his ears as he saw Ash turn around.

He smiled. "Hey there you are! We were just talking about you! Come over you have to meet my cousins!" Misty couldn't prepare herself fast enough as the side door of the van slid open and six people jumped out to gather around her. They all seemed young, from seven to sixteen, and consisted of five boys and one girl all dressed in blue winter coats.

The littlest one spoke to Misty first, his arms sticking out to the sides due to his bubble coat preventing them from relaxing. "Hi my name is Sammy. Are you the pretty lady with the orange hair?"

Misty giggled. "Well last time I checked I was still a red head." She took off her winter woolen hat, showing off her fiery locks. "My name is Misty. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

The oldest boy spoke up for everyone to prevent too many random questions, "Hello I'm Alec and these are my brothers and sister. You already met Sammy, he's the youngest, and here is Kyle with the brown hair, Justin in the long blue coat over there, James with the long black hair, and finally Christina in the pig tails here," he finished tapping his elbow onto his sister's. Misty couldn't help but noticed how much James stood out, and not for his long hair, but for his disposition of seeming quiet and reserved. He didn't even look at her when his name was mentioned. The next to the oldest child, Christina, seemed to notice this and broke Misty's train of thoughts.

"I wouldn't worry about him; he's always shy like that. Don't worry, he just has to get to know you that's all." Her brown curly pig tails bounced as she had a thought. "Is that your Pikachu? Are you a trainer?"

Misty smiled. "Well no this is Ash's Pikachu, but yes I am a trainer, in fact—" But as she was about to finish Christina stopped her, her eyes dancing with delight.

"You're a trainer?! Then let's have a battle!"

Misty couldn't help but step back one foot in shock. _A battle here? Now? But it's so cold!_ She was about to whine in displeasure but Christina's brothers beat her to it.

"C'mon Chris, don't start this now," Alec rolled his eyes, having already seen his sister's form of saying hello and decided that it wasn't always the proper way to introduce yourself. He put his hand on her shoulder to stop her but he knew once her mind was made up nothing could stop it.

"Aww come on Chris it's cold! No one wants to see a stupid battle now," Justin piped up, rubbing his short black hair in frustration. Misty couldn't help but notice his red freckles show all the color of his face. Kyle whined as well, stomping his foot and digging it deeper into the snow, Sammy bounced in place being jovial as always, and James showed a bit of interest before turning his attention back to the snow.

"Oh you guys," Christina protested, placing her gloved hands on her hips, "Why can't we have a battle? What's the point of being a trainer without pushing yourself to the limit every once in a while?"

"Chris, it's too cold, only an idiot would want to battle out here!" Alec responded, spinning her body around to face him.

"Oh so I'm an idiot?!" Christina huffed, "Hmph, you've been acting snobby ever since you beat me in the Johto conference! You're not the best trainer you know, otherwise you would have gotten first instead of third!"

Alec sighed, once again getting tired of the same argument. "Look I'm just saying maybe Misty doesn't want to battle in the cold ok? Why do you keep bringing the conference up in every meaningless conversation?"

Misty stood there confused as they kept arguing, when Ash came up next to her. "Uncle just told me Christina placed sixth in the last Johto conference. She was beaten by Alec and she's still pretty sore, so she takes the chance to train every chance she gets. Auntie has asked us to give them some pointers, so what do you think?"

Misty thought as she lifted her hand up to her chin. "Well I suppose the best way to do that would be to battle, but I feel a bit awkward battling your cousin. What if I beat her and she hates me?" she whispered to him.

Ash smiled. "No way in the world would she hate you, in fact just accepting her battle would make you the greatest person in the world! She's a bit spunky and hardheaded, so maybe you could knock her down a few pegs or something."

"Hmm…she reminds me of someone…" she lifted her bright blue eyes to him and smiled. "I suppose a short battle wouldn't hurt." Pikachu hopped onto Ash's shoulder as she walked over to the bickering siblings.

"Alright," she agreed, clasping her hands together, "You have yourself a battle Christina."

Christina stopped mid-sentence in her fight to stare at Misty, her eyes dancing with excitement again. "Really Misty? Oh thank you thank you!" She stuck her tongue out at her older brother as she pulled a pokeball from her belt. "Is two on two ok with you?"

"Perfect," Misty nodded. She turned to Ash and whispered to him again, "Hey, does she know I'm a gym leader?"

Ash smiled evilly at her, "Aw c'mon Mist you'll ruin the fun. Besides trust me it's better if she doesn't know."

"You think so?" she asked.

"Trust me a long time ago I battled an elite four member and had no idea about her being so prestigious. If she doesn't know then she'll try her hardest against you without getting nervous or anything." Ash brought his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.

"Hey Ash! Quit flirting and let me battle your girlfriend already!" the younger girl shouted in anticipation a few feet away. Ash smiled and began to back away when Misty called him back from over her shoulder.

"Ash, what do you think you're doing? Get in the middle and be our referee! Hurry up before it starts to snow again!" she shouted.

Ash sighed and trudged over to his designated spot. _Gosh if it isn't one girl bossing me it's another. I think those two would get along well…_

He walked over to the white colored sidewalk and began to state the rules. "Alright you two this is a two on two match with no time limit. Both trainers are allowed to make substitions and once one trainer's pokemon are unable to battle the match is over. Ok are you both ready?"

"Hey Ash my boy I got an idea for you," Ash's uncle interrupted, subconsciously flexing his arm muscles a little, "How about you get in there and we can make it a double battle!"

"A double battle?" everyone repeated.

The tall muscular man nodded. "How about it? Both Christina and Alec need training, and they really need your advice, whether they disagree with me or not…"

"Dad you want me to battle with him?" the pigtailed trainer whined, pointing at Alec. "No way! He'll just slow me down!" Alec just sighed and rolled his eyes, silently cursing himself for being involved.

"I don't know about that Uncle Steve," Ash thought aloud. "I don't think they would want to battle together…"

"Exactly!" both Alec and Christina agreed, although Christina was more enthusiastic about it than Alec was. Steve, however, became even more excited knowing this. He wrapped his strong muscle arms around his son and daughter and pulled them closer to him.

"Oh ho ho ho! C'mon now wouldn't you both want some tips from a strong pokemon master and his fiancée? They are both strong trainers and you both could learn a lot! And besides," he squeezed the children closer to him, making them squirm in discomfort, "You both are also children of a strong former pokemon trainer! You both are my children, children of the Ketchum family! Pokemon battles are in your blood! Why wouldn't you both want to participate in them together? And you both are also suppose to set a prime example for your younger brothers, who will also become strong trainers someday! Make our family proud and give this young pokemon master of Kanto a powerful showing from two magnificent Johto siblings!" The over enthusiastic father pretty much crushed his children to death with every word and was so happy and proud that he didn't notice everyone sweatdrop with worry and slight embarrassment.

"So…your uncle seems more excited than they are…" Misty whispered to Ash.

Ash chuckled. "He's always like this. You should see him when he's drunk, he flexes his muscles like he's in a weightlifting competiton! Not only that but his eyes shine so much you get blinded just by looking at them!"

Finally Alec got an arm free to tap his father on the elbow. "Alright, alright we'll battle just let us free already…"

Uncle Steve looked down at his purple colored children. "Well that's the spirit my beauties! Show them the strength of the Ketchum family and make sure you give Misty here a wonderful welcome by us!" He slapped both Alec and Christina on their backs, causing the younger sister to nearly fall by her father's unintentional display of strength. Christina coughed and Alec sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine I'll battle with him," Christina agreed once she caught her breath, "But he better not mess up!" She had turned to face him but he was already walking back to the spot where his sister once stood. "Ugh, he acts like he's so cool!"

Misty giggled as she turned to Ash, "Well are you up for it?"

Ash sighed, "Not really. If I had a choice I would be sitting on the couch cuddling with you, since this is one of those days I feel lazy."

Misty walked back to her spot and looked at the dark sky. "Yeah, this is one of those days when you don't feel like doing anything…" Ash stood beside her, thinking of a pokemon to choose.

"Well this shouldn't be a real serious battle anyway right? I'm just going to go with Pikachu."

Pikachu stomped on Ash's shoulder, looking offended, "Pika pika chu pikapi?! (What's that supposed to mean?!)"

Ash blushed slightly, "Nothing Pikachu, really, I'm sure you're capable of handling any situation!"

Misty was slightly confused again but quickly dismissed it and grabbed a pokeball. "I'm going to use Golduck, I think he deserves some screen time."

Steve stepped in between the couples and served as the new referee, "Alright everyone let's get started! I want to see some good old fashioned battling!"

Christina smirked, although going against a pokemon master wasn't easy, she held no fear. "Ok then! Staraptor, let's go!" She unleashed her mighty bird into the sky, its wings being caressed in the wind as it soared into the air.

Alec, although reluctant, decided to get into the spirit and release his pokemon. "Meganium, let's show them what we're made of!" The large grass type hopped out of its pokeball, its large flower pedals sparkling as they swayed.

"Oh wow would you look at that," Misty whispered, "A golden Meganium! It's beautiful!"

"Yeah and it looks strong too," Ash commented, "We better be careful, but you shouldn't worry too much Misty, me and Pikachu got your back."

Misty smiled knowingly, "I'm amazed by that pokemon but I'm not scared of it! Go Golduck!" The tall blue duck landed down on the hard snow right next to Pikachu, and acknowledged Pikachu and Ash before looking at his opponents.

"Excellent!" Steve exclaimed, "A Golduck and Pikachu against a Staraptor and Meganium! This should be a good battle!"

"We're going to allow you two to make the first move Christina!" Misty shouted to her opponents.

"Good!" she answered back, "Then let's go Staraptor start off with an aerial ace on Golduck!" The large bird flew up high in the air to gain speed, then sped down to ground like a jet plane, letting the snow fly behind it as it headed straight toward its blue target.

"Golduck stand your ground and hold it off!" Misty commanded. Golduck spread out his legs and braced himself, holding his arms out in front of him to grab the attack. Staraptor struck with full force, nearly sending the poor blue duck flying, but he dug in his heels and stood strong. As the two were struggling to hit one another…

"Pikachu, iron tail!" Pikachu spun in the air, his tail dark silver, and was about to crash down on the speedy bird.

"Pika…pika…!" he cried in determination, but was then interrupted by yellow green vines grabbing his tail and stopping his momentum.

"Pikachu!" his trainer yelled, "Try to break free!" Pikachu couldn't do much unfortunately, being upside down, his little arms couldn't reach the ropes that bound his tail.

"Now, Meganium, bring it in and use body slam!"

As Meganium was reeling in Pikachu like a weak Magikarp, Misty was making her move. "Golduck ice punch!" Golduck pulled back a little, his jewel shining on his forehead, and pulled back his arm as it became incased in ice.

Christina gasped, "Staraptor get out of there!" Staraptor's strong talons, which was once used to push it forward, now began to push it back and into the air—its wings barely missed getting clipped by the ice punch.

Meganium was still holding down Pikachu to the ground as it jumped up in the air. He was unable to move due to the vines hugging his body. Ash knew an electric attack wouldn't hold it off but he had to try.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" As expected the volts of electricity did nothing as the large Meganium was still heading towards the ground.

"Golduck, hydro pump!" Meganium was stunned as it spiraled backwards, the water mixed in with the electric attack seemed to do a bit more damage as its hold on Pikachu loosened and was about to crash into the ground. The only thing that prevented this from happening was the flower pokemon's strong legs, which made contact with the snow first and allowed it to recover.

Pikachu jumped back into the air and landed next to Golduck, expressing his thanks. Golduck just smiled and gave the little mouse a thumbs up.

"Thanks Mist, that helped, but we have to be more careful of that Meganium—it's not a pokemon to be messed with," Ash replied.

Misty nodded. "Yeah, we can't let our guard down now!"

"Hey!" Christina yelled, "Don't forget about my Staraptor! She can't be ignored! Use quick attack on that Golduck!"

Alec looked to her and scowled. "You idiot! You can't just charge in like that!"

Just as Christina was about to argue back she was stopped by the sound of her precious bird pokemon getting electrocuted by Pikachu's thunderbolt. "Staraptor!" she yelled.

Misty attacked next as the once mighty bird began to fall. "Golduck ice punch!" The blue duck once again pulled his fist back, and charged in quickly as it prepared to strike, but was stopped by a magical leaf attack that Meganium unleashed at the last moment. Due to Golduck's superior speed, it managed to dodge and land perfectly back in the snow, but the damage to Staraptor had already been done.

Alec sighed. "This is exactly how you lost the Johto conference, always charging in head first without thinking, now I have to be the one to save you!"

Christina yelled back, her fists clenched and shaking in anger, "I never asked you to save me and I don't need your help! You just stay on your side and worry about your pokemon!"

"This is a double battle in case you haven't noticed, and we're supposed to work as a team, but you rushing in recklessly is also hurting my Meganium!"

"Well your yelling isn't making things any easier either! Just mind your own business!"

Ash and Misty could only stand and watch as the two rival siblings began to fight again. "You know, they remind me of May and Max," Ash replied.

"I guess every couple fights, but they sure picked the wrong time to do it…" Misty said as she saw her prized water pokemon shrug its shoulders.

"Gah, what are you two doing fighting each other for! What about the battle?!" Steve yelled to his stubborn children, his voice in a state of panic.

"Alright Ash, I hate to win like this but I think that Meganium would give us trouble if it's focused so follow my lead! Golduck, aqua jet!" Misty said.

Ash nodded as the duck sped forth, being incased in a pillar of water, propelling himself with his long legs. Golduck closed in quickly on his target, and after waiting a moment for Meganium to receive an order from its tired trainer, it dodged on its own—but in the wrong direction. It moved straight into a charging Pikachu, who used his incredible speed to also surround himself by a wall of electricity and became a speeding bullet.

"Go Pikachu, volt tackle Meganium into Staraptor!"

"Pika pika pika pika…pika!" The yellow mouse quickly obeyed, and tackled the grass type with a surge of electricity that transferred right to the large bird that was still on the ground trying to recover. They both screamed from being paralyzed by the attack, and so did their trainers that snapped back into the battle and feared for their safety.

"Meganium!"

"Staraptor no!"

Staraptor was out like a light, but Meganium was somehow able to stand and began to charge for a quick solarbeam that was launched a second later. Pikachu somehow managed to dodge the full force of the attack by rolling on his stomach and using his tail to bounce back up. Meganium charged at Pikachu for another attack, but forgot about the Golduck standing right behind it.

"Meganium behind you!" Alec yelled.

Misty smiled. "It's too late now! Golduck, focus punch!" Golduck pulled back his fist once again, and it was enveloped in another white light before hitting Meganium from behind with full power. Meganium gave a final cry of frustration, before it collapsed to the ground unable to continue.

Well there were many looks as Christina and Alec recalled their pokemon. Christina had a livid look as her eyes started to water; Alec looked frustrated and sighed sadly; Steve smacked his face into his hand and shook his head; Ash sighed and looked to Misty his face laced with worry; Misty shook her head and impatiently tapped her right foot, getting upset that a perfectly good double battle was wasted; however Pikachu and Golduck seemed quite pleased with their victory, while all the spectators sweatdropped, waiting for another verbal argument to ensue.

Alec sighed again, waiting for his younger sister to find something else to complain about. Sure enough…

"This is all your fault!"

There it is…

"If you hadn't got me distracted and started yelling at me, then we would have won that match! I had the perfect strategy!" Christina continued.

"You call charging in blindly against a water type knowing that its partner is a main weakness to flying types a strategy…?" Alec mumbled, too distressed to raise his voice.

"Shut up! You're always contradicting me! You think you're so special that no one else is better than you!"

"I'm afraid I'm not as narcissistic as you are…" he mumbled again.

Christina had finally reached her breaking point. She raised her hand up above her, ready strike down with all her power, but her mother held her back. Misty finally managed to get a closer look at Ash's aunt to realize she was pregnant, by at least five months. Her long blue dress swayed slightly as she pulled her daughter's body back further, and giving her a stern look.

"Christina Ketchum!" she placed both hands on her hips, "Don't you dare hit your brother!"

"But mom!" she protested, "Can't you see it's his fault?! He always thinks he's the better trainer just because he's two years older!"

"Well he has been traveling longer than you sweetheart," Steven intervened, "I'm sure he has just a bit more experience…but that doesn't explain getting mad at your younger sister like that, Alec, especially during a pokemon battle!"

Alec held his head down, not saying a word. Being the oldest he knew very well when he was overreacting, but he had wanted to win just as much as Christina did, and didn't want to lose due to a stupid mistake. Although Ash was his cousin he was also the pokemon master of Kanto, and he wanted to show off his power to him a little. But now he just looked like a spoiled kid in front of him and his future wife.

"Don't you understand that Ash and Misty did right by continuing on the battle? For one they wanted to get you back into the battle, and if this battle was during an actual tournament you both would probably lose automatically!" the children's mother scolded, her hands still firmly on her hips. "Now, I want you both to apologize to Ash and Misty here for wasting their time!"

"Sorry…" Christina mumbled.

"I'm sorry for all of this," Alec stated sadly. "I didn't mean to get so angry, but I only wanted to impress you both. I never fought against a pokemon master and a gym leader at the same time, so I guess I wanted things to go perfectly, but I freaked out when Christina went in like that because I knew that all it took was one thunderbolt…"

"Wait a minute!" Christina lifted her head back up in shock after feeling bad for the display she showed. "You mean Misty is a gym leader?!"

Alec turned to look at her, "You mean this whole time you didn't know this was Misty the Cerulean City gym leader?"

"A gym leader…" Christina whispered in awe. She then began to bow profusely, feeling even more embarrassed, "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I just thought you were some random trainer and I took your Golduck for granted! Forgive me!"

Although Misty was still clearly upset she swallowed her bitterness and accepted the young girl's apology. "It's quite alright, but let this be a lesson that you can't take any trainer or pokemon for granted, because there are a lot of powerful trainers out there, and some of them can even look as clueless as Ash here!"

Ash eyes narrowed at her, "If I'm so clueless then how come I'm champion?"

Misty smiled, "Maybe Lance showed pity on you," she giggled.

Ash rolled his eyes, "Anyway you guys shouldn't feel so bad, it's not like you lost anything by losing your battle against us, in fact I would say you both learned something!"

"That's right," Misty agreed, "Double battling is tougher than singles because you have to learn to trust and rely on the person you're fighting with as well as rely in the strength of their pokemon and your own."

"Yeah as soon as you both learn to trust each other then you two would definitely give us a run for our money!" Ash said.

"Oh ho ho! So you guys did learn something after all!" Steven had popped up behind Ash and Misty and smothered them in a bear hug, despite their attempts to run away. "Yes, listen to them well my children, for trust and friendship is the first step to winning pokemon battles! Although learning about type matchups and your opponents is also important, trust is even more important! In fact it is the fabric of the Ketchum family! We were born and raised on it! You must learn to trust in yourself and trust in each other as well!" His constant subconscious flexing of his arm muscles nearly choked out Ash and Misty, but lucky for them Ash's loving aunt tapped his on the shoulder, causing him to release his hold.

"And just as much as trust is important, what's also important is self control dear," she spoke gently, slightly pointing as the gasping Ash and Misty.

"Oh ha ha ha! Forgive me for that you two, I tend to get over excited at times, but you all understand me right?" Steve laughed. He tapped Misty's shoulder lightly as she was recovering, "Hey I forgot to introduce you to my little wifey here! This is Liza, and this," he pointed happily to her belly, "Is my little four month old unborn child who has no name! We are pleased to meet such a great water trainer! Welcome to the family Misty!" He hugged her again, but this time taking care to watch his power as he wrapped his arms around the small young trainer's body.

Misty laughed. "It's a pleasure to meet both of you! I never realized Ash had cousins until today!"

"Well I guess this just goes to prove you learn something new every day!" Steve laughed.

"Well now that all the introductions are finally out of the way, how about we all go inside and get to know each other in the nice warm air!" Delia replied, leading everyone inside the house.

* * *

About thirty minutes later everyone was in the living room laughing and getting warm by the heat of the fireplace. Liza and Steve were sitting on the couch, four year old Sammy on his mother's lap sleeping, while Ash and Misty shared the chair next to them. The six year old Kyle was more interested in watching tv than talking, Justin sat next to him on the floor playing a small handheld game that was in reality too violent for the eight year old but as long as he didn't get caught he didn't care much, and James, the quiet ten year old, was on another couch in the corner—looking out the window as more snow began to fall. Christina, the wild pre teen at twelve and Alec, the oldest at fourteen, were still sulking over their loss, and sat next to their parents not talking to one another. Ms. Ketchum took a break from cooking and was sitting next to Ash and Misty in another chair she had brought out from her room, her favorite rocking chair that she had since Ash was a baby.

"I still can't believe you're getting married, Ash, it seems like just yesterday when I bought you that little sailor outfit for your first day of school!" Liza clapped her hands together and said excitedly, "It just goes to show how fast time flies by!"

Ash's mother nodded in agreement, "It seems like just yesterday when I was cleaning that little bottom of yours!"

"Mom!" Ash blushed.

Misty giggled. "I bet he had the cutest little butt," she laughed along with Christina.

"Can we change the subject please?" Ash asked, his blush deepening.

"Well anyway I'm so glad you all could make it," Delia continued, "Since the wedding rehearsal is in a couple of weeks I'm glad you're here before all the seats are filled."

"Yes, it's a wonder we're here at all knowing your brother's perception of time," Liza stated, taking a glance at him.

Steve started to scratch the back of his neck, "Well of course I wanted to get here early, and it's a good thing we did, we would have missed meeting Misty here until the wedding day!"

"I guess people still tease you about taking a month to get out of Viridian forest, huh Uncle Steve?" Ash asked, beginning to smile.

"They tease me for a lot of things my boy, but they'll never take the pride I had since I was born!" he answered.

"I guess you still had that pride when your pants fell off you at our wedding day huh?" Liza laughed.

Everyone laughed, and even the quiet James smiled a little, as Steve explained himself, "Of course I did! Never show fear, even when your being laughed at, that's what I always say!"

"Hey speaking of that day, I think I still have that picture!" Delia smiled.

"Hey, come on now sis, no one would want to see that I bet…"

"I wouldn't mind," Ash said.

"I want to see it too!" Christina said as she bounced a little.

"Count me in!" Misty agreed.

"Aw come on, why are you all against me now?" Steve whined.

"Oh I think those boxers with the Eevee on them fit you pretty well dear," Liza said as she laughed behind her hand.

"I'll go get it! Hey maybe I should show you some of Ash's baby pictures too! They would be great for the reception," Delia winked at her son before skipping to her bedroom.

"How did I get involved? And no one wants to see my baby pictures mom!" Ash began to blush again.

"I already saw them, you were a cutie," Misty giggled.

Ash groaned as Pikachu began to laugh. "Don't tell me you saw them too…" Ash turned to his trusted giggling partner—which gave him away.

As Steve followed Delia in her room, still disagreeing with the recent turn of events, Liza turned back to Ash and Misty. "By the way, how is Delia doing?" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked back.

"Well…since the anniversary is coming up and all…how is she holding up?" she asked.

"Oh…well she seems to be doing well so far…" Ash answered.

"Anniversary?" Misty questioned.

"The anniversary of when mom and dad got married is a couple of weeks after our wedding. Mom always gets kind of down before then, but for the most part she's been ok. I think it's because we're all here with her. It's always nice to know that you're not alone all the time," Ash explained, which Misty understood immediately.

"Say Ash, has your mother ever talked about getting married again?" Liza asked next.

Ash shook his head. "Never, at least not to me."

"I have a man in mind to fix her up with, you know, just someone to keep her company now she's going to be alone again."

"What, who do you mean?" Ash wondered, getting a little worried as he remembered his aunt's track record of being a matchmaker.

"Well, I was thinking about Professor Oak!" she exclaimed, getting giggles out of Alec and Christina.

"Professor Oak? _The_ Professor Oak?!" Ash said, already in a state of shock, silently wondering if this was a cruel joke.

Liza nodded, "I think they would go really well together, and they know each other so well! They've known each other for years, they even went to college together, and Oak was always there for her, especially when Jo died."

"What? No way! I mean I know he was there for my mother, but I promise you they are just friends and nothing more," Ash tried to persuade her.

"Well I don't know…I remember every time we saw Professor Oak your mother wasn't too far behind…I think they would make a good couple!" Misty said.

"Misty, you're not serious are you?" Ash looked to her.

"Oh Misty we shouldn't pay any attention to him, he's obviously just a little protective of his mother, and doesn't know a good relationship when he sees it!" Liza smiled.

Misty and Liza giggled, and Ash rolled his eyes. He was thinking of something else to say, when his mother and his uncle walked in. His uncle had a crimson defeated look to his face, which told Ash that he lost his battle in keeping an embarrassing photo from being shown. Ash's mother on the other hand, looked happily at her family as she held a large book in her hands, filled with images of the past.

"Alright then," she said joyfully, "Now who wanted to see my dear brother in his underwear?"

* * *

Later on in the day, Misty had to be on her way back to the gym, especially when Daisy called about twenty times complaining about how many trainers wanted to battle her. Ash walked her back to that familiar fork in the road, talking about what their wedding would be like all the way. Finally Ash reached the subject of his cousins again.

"Sorry about my cousins earlier, I know they kind of ruined things…" he trailed off.

Misty shook her head and smiled. "I loved meeting them. My family is just as rambunctious so don't feel so bad. But there is one thing I'm wondering about."

"What is it?" Ash asked.

"Well all this time I thought Delia was an only child. If Steve is her legitimate older brother then where was he when Delia was kidnapped and her parents were killed?"

Ash watched his foot dig deeper into the snow. "Well you see Uncle Steve really is mom's older brother, but when she was young he was supposedly already on a pokemon journey. By the time he finally returned, mom was a part of Team Rocket. He spent years looking for her, and when they finally reunited, mom couldn't even remember that she had an older brother. She told me that Team Rocket had really messed with her head badly and no one could even bring up the subject of her parents death without her acting distant and strange. The only reason mom can talk about that memory now is because of dad. Dad literally changed her life and made her see those memories not as a curse but as a blessing."

"A blessing?" Misty repeated. "Watching your own parents get killed like that…how is that a blessing?"

"If Team Rocket was really cruel, they would have killed mom too. Then I wouldn't be here and things wouldn't be as they are now," Ash answered.

Misty smiled. "Well I guess the past doesn't matter anymore. There's nothing we can do to change it, but we just live from it. Now we have the future to look forward to, right? Well I guess I better get back to the gym. The princesses await my arrival," she said politely as she curtsied a little, causing Ash to laugh.

"Well princess can you call me tonight? We don't have to talk long since you would probably have like a million battles tomorrow," Ash said.

"That's true," Misty nodded. "But I wouldn't mind staying up late to talk to you, after all we still have a lot of things to discuss, but I would have to get up early if Violet decides to take me shopping tomorrow for my wedding dress."

Ash shook his head. "I still can't believe she's willing to pay for your wedding dress."

"Well she keeps saying it's the least she can do, since she thinks she killed my childhood," she smiled a little, secretly feeling glad that she wouldn't have to pay for the beautiful dress she saw in a magazine a few days ago. "Well I should be off now. Take care Ash and Pikachu, I love you both." She gave Ash a kiss and kissed Pikachu on his forehead, then hopped on her bike.

"I love you too, Mist, talk to you tonight ok?"

Misty nodded and then rode off into the waning sunset, hoping her tires wouldn't slip on the icy ground beneath her.

* * *

A few days later, Dawn and Kenny made an appearance in Cerulean. Misty of course wouldn't let her best friends stay in a crummy pokemon center, so the gym became even more crowded than before. As promised, Violet took Misty out of town to Celadon to buy a wedding dress, and since Dawn was around she decided to treat the blue haired girl to a dress for the wedding as well.

"Thank you so much for buying me a dress too, Violet!" Dawn smiled as she spun around in a long bright yellow sleeveless dress that had a simple white sash around her waist. She admired herself in the mirror before turning back to her friends.

Violet grinned. "No problem, Dawn. I just wish May were here too I would buy her a dress."

"Uhm, Violet if you don't mind me asking, where did you get all this money from anyway? Wedding dresses are really expensive you know," Misty said.

"Well you would be surprised just how much I've been working these past two years my dear," Violet replied, her hands sitting proudly on her hips, "You know that Kai is a swimming teacher back at his home and with me to help him out we can proudly say that we can live pretty comfortably. You'd be surprised how many people in Unova don't know how to swim!"

"So what do guys think? Is this good?" Dawn asked.

Violet and Misty looked back to her yellow dress. "It seems too plain for you Dawn, you should pick something more frilly," Misty giggled.

Dawn sighed and went back to the selection of dresses she picked out. "It's a bit hard with the theme you and Ash picked," she said.

"Yeah, who would pick a theme called wintertime in the summer? You're getting married in February!" Violet agreed.

"Hey don't ask me it was Lily's idea. I don't know a thing about themes so I just went with it. Besides I pretty much denied every idea she suggested I would feel bad if I didn't accept at least one idea." Misty shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the collection of wedding dresses on the racks.

"Misty, we don't accept Lily's ideas for a reason—they're stupid!" Violet exclaimed.

Dawn giggled to herself as she picked up a light blue dress with a satin sash. It was long and strapped and also came with a small and fluffy cotton vest that complimented the white satin sash and would be able to cover her shoulders if it got too cold. The dress extended all the way to her ankles and was tiered from the waist down, flowing with folds and creases that curved and wrapped around one another almost like a pleated dress. She brought the dress up to her chest and it felt perfect; she giggled happily again and turned back to the sisters.

"I think I found it guys!"

Misty turned away from a dress that she had been admiring and smiled. Violet was a few feet away looking at a dress of her own and looked to nod in approval.

"Yep, now that's you Dawn," Misty said.

Dawn began to bounce in place, happily cluching the dress in arms, when she noticed a familiar figure pass by the window. "Hey that's—"

Misty turned around to notice a familiar flash of jet black hair. She smiled and ran out of the small shop, running and grabbing him from behind. "Guess who?"

Ash turned around, "Hey, fancy meeting you here. Out shopping?"

"You can say that," she blushed. "Hey what are you doing here?"

Ash sighed. "Well the guys and I was here for tuxes, but Brock saw a couple of pretty women and went after them, and Ritchie and Tracy went after him because—well you know Brock. I'm also trying to catch up to Gary and Kenny because Gary wanted to show me this little shop for pokemon items but I lost them too."

"I guess you're having a good time then," Misty laughed feeling his despair a little. "I would let you come with me, Violet, and Dawn but I doubt you would want to see us dress shopping."

"Of course not, Misty," Violet intervened, "Besides it's bad luck for a groom to see the bride's wedding dress before the wedding, and especially before she even buys it."

"Oh who ever came up with that stupid supersitition anyway? It never made any sense to me," Misty pouted.

Ash wrapped his arms around his girl's waist. "I bet I know why they came up with that. Women were afraid that if they were seen with their dress on before the wedding that the men would take their virginity away before they even went down the aisle."

Misty laughed and tapped him on the shoulder, "You're a mess!" She noticed his glance shift and followed it to Ash's missing friends. Tracy and Ritchie came up to greet Misty and her friends, holding Brock in between them. Brock looked the most tired out of all of them and the red haired trainer noticed two red hand prints on either side of his face.

Misty laughed and bent over to see his worn out overcast face facing the ground. "Well hello there, sunshine, I see someone has given you a double slap for your trouble!"

Brock could only groan and moan something incoherent. Ash sighed again, "Didn't find any good bargains, huh Brocko?" He still couldn't help but smile, knowing that even after all these years his best friend was still the same.

"Only two slaps in the face exchanged for a probable kick in the shins," Brock moaned pitifully.

"Yeah, and I say it was a good bargain from where they were thinking of kicking him at first," Ritchie said, trying to suppress his laughter.

"Well it was nice seeing you all again, ladies," Tracy said, "But we better get going if we want to get back home by sunset."

Violet, Misty, and Dawn all said their goodbyes to the men, and giggled to themselves as they saw Brock being dragged by Ritchie and Tracy.

* * *

"Alright everyone! Welcome to the one and only wedding rehersal!" Lily exclaimed, bouncing in place at the center of the aisle.

It was still at least two weeks before the wedding, and the small group of family and friends were in the large white church in Pallet, learning about their roles they would play when the big day would come.

"She acts like she's an announcer on a tv show," Misty whispered to Ash.

Ash gave a quiet laugh, "Is that a script in her hands?"

Misty giggled. "Even at my wedding she still wants to be the center of attention. Oh well I don't really care, as long as we get married I don't care who's looking at who."

"Who wouldn't want to look at the most beautiful woman in the world?" Ash whispered in her ear. "Hey, would you try on that wedding dress for me?"

Misty blushed a little, remembering what he said about seeing wedding dresses before the wedding. "In two weeks I will, you perv."

"Ouch, why do you have to be so mean? I was only kidding," he whispered again.

"Ash!" a voice yelled. Immediately the two lovers were snapped back to reality.

Lily stood there fuming, since calling Ash's name for the past few seconds got her a bit riled up. "Have you been listening to a word I said?"

"Uhh…have we gotten to the part where I kiss her?" Ash asked innocently, his bright brown eyes shining in the light coming from the ceiling lights. Lily shook her head. She sighed and mumbled something under her breath.

Misty smiled sweetly as everyone else began to giggle. "Sorry sis, you now have the attention of Ash and I. Could you repeat what you said please?"

Lily folded up her papers into a cone shaped figure and pointed it at her younger sister. "I was telling you and Daisy to get to your spot behind the door, and Ash you and the spiky haired guy over there get over to your spot over here by the minister."

"Uhm, it's Brock, Lily," the spiky haired boy mentioned.

"Whatever, just get over there."

Brock looked as if a dark cloud past over his head, and sulked all the way to his spot. Ash stood to his left and patted him on the shoulder. "That's alright at least I remember your name, Spike," Ash laughed. Brock rolled his eyes, then rubbed his hand in Ash's hair and smiled.

"Watch out man, I think Misty is rubbing off on you," Brock said.

"Ok, places everyone!" Lily looked around. In an area near the front of the altar, Delia and her family took a few seats, Kenny sitting next to the excited mother looking at Dawn, who was in her place on the left side of the preacher, while the other men—Brock, Ash, Gary, Ritchie, Tracy and Professor Oak were in the seats on the right side. Violet and Kai were behind them, Violet yawning in boredom and Kai already asleep on her shoulder. The door to the main entrance of the church was closed, and behind stood Daisy and Misty, waiting for Lily's signal.

"Ok now that everyone is _awake_," she stressed this word as she tapped her paper roll on Kai's head, "Now we can get started! Ok so Daisy and Misty are behind the door and they hear the music: dum dum de dum, dum dum de dum, hey Daisy and Misty where are you?!"

"We're behind the door!" Daisy yelled back.

Lily sighed again in frustration, "I know that but you both are supposed to come out when you hear the music!"

"All I heard was you humming, Lily," Misty said.

"Well that is the music and your cue," Lily answered back.

"Wow if that's the music I think we're in trouble," Misty said, beginning to laugh as she heard everyone else burst into laughter.

Lily slapped her forehead with her head and groaned. "Now is not the time to be a smartass, Misty! Just get your butts out here!" She couldn't help but smile a little when she saw Misty and Daisy come through the door. "Well don't just stand there, come down."

Daisy and Misty couldn't stop giggling as they got closer to her sister. They couldn't help but enjoy pissing her off, especially Misty, who took the chance to make her sisters angry every chance she got. They stopped in front of Lily, who was blocking the path to the altar, her hands on her hips as her curly pink hair threatened to engulf her face, her bottom lip quivering and her eyes flashing in anger.

"I'm sorry, Lily," Misty apologized, "I just wanted to make you relax a little. Your nervousness makes me nervous too, you know."

Lily sighed. "Whatever, just try to be at least a little serious ok little sister? Now go on up you two."

Lily let them pass, Misty's arm wrapped around Daisy's, as they stood in front of the minister and waited for further instructions. Before waiting for Lily, the minister intervened, telling Ash to get beside Misty. Ash obliged, taking Misty's right hand before turning to her.

"Hi again," Ash said.

Misty laughed. "Hi," she whispered.

"Perfect!" Lily bounced happily again. Then she looked down at her script and flipped a few pages. "Alright so then the minister says his thing, and blah blah blah," she turned a few more pages, oblivious to the way the man in the black robe was looking at her.

Misty patted him on his arm, "I wouldn't worry about it sir," she said, "She's never been a church goer." The kindhearted minister nodded in understanding as they all turned back to Lily, who was still flipping the pages of her script.

"She's not turning this into a movie is she?" Ash whispered. Misty giggled again and shook her head. In the pews, Violet finally got annoyed and finished it up for Lily.

"Let's just skip the formalities and get to the kiss. We already know that Ash and Misty are going to write their own vows, no one wants to object, and Pikachu is going to be the ring bearer."

"Pika!" Pikachu shouted happily that it his name was finally mentioned and walked up with a small white pillow in his paws.

"Well aren't you the little cutie who came prepared!" Lily rushed up the small rodent and kneeled down to him. "Looks like someone can learn a thing or two from you, like that trainer of yours!"

"Hey, it was me who bought him that pillow!" Ash protested.

Lily stood back up to her normal height. "Whatever, well I guess that's it, oh except for the ending!"

Misty groaned, knowing her illustrious eccentric sister had something in mind, "What are you talking about Lily?"

"Oh no you don't, I'll tell you on the wedding day…" Lily hummed happily as she turned around, her eyes dancing in the light.

"Lily it's my wedding you know, I should know!" Misty exclaimed.

Ash held a hand up as if asking for permission to speak, "Yeah and it's my wedding too…cant you just whisper it to me in my ear?"

Lily turned back around and thought for a moment, her hand on her chin, but then raised her head back up. "As tempting as that is Ashy dear, I'm afraid I'm going to pass."

Misty stomped her foot, pulling Ash and Daisy unexpectantly forward as she did this. "Lily if you turn our wedding into a show I swear…!"

"Don't worry little sister it's going to be lovely I won't ruin it I promise!" Lily said, her eyes pleading with Misty to let her do this.  
Misty pouted a little, dragging Ash and Daisy closer to the ground by the arms, but then she sighed. Daisy was about to lose her balance in her high heels and Ash tugged on Misty's shirt to hang on. Misty didn't know about her death grip on them until she looked down and released them. Despite this, Daisy still crashed to the ground, causing everyone to laugh, while Ash barely managed to maintain his balance.

"Well I know how childish you can be but hopefully you know the seriousness of a wedding," she placed her hands on her hips, then winked playfully and walked back to her seat.

"Hey!" Lily yelled, but before she could say something back the preacher intervened. He straightened up his robe on his shoulders and pulled a little at the white sash around his neck. He was an old, silver headed man, but still proved every day he had a little pep in every step. He was the town's only preacher after all, so what would Pallet be without him?

He cleared his throat, "Well I would like to thank you all for taking the time out to come to this rehearsal," he began.

"Yeah, especially with Lily here," Violet said, yawning again.

"Well I am the wedding planner you know!" she spoke back.

"Anyway," the old man continued, "I would like to thank you all for coming, because I know there are probably other things you all would rather be doing, but since you all are here it shows your love and compassion for these two young people who are about to join hands in holy matrimony. That be said I like to tell Ash and Misty here not to worry, and to just take these next few weeks to relax and enjoy yourselves."

"Oh we do that already," Ash spoke up, receiving another round of giggles. Misty reached forward and shook the old preacher's hands with her own.

"Thank you so much sir, for all you've done to help us, since we didn't really know anything about weddings until you clarified things for us," she said. "I don't know how to thank you."

The modest man smiled heartedly. "Just live a long life with your husband and family, for life is too short to take things too slowly by preparing for every little thing."

The young couple nodded, and watched as he gathered his things and began to leave. He placed his book in his satchel and tossed it over his head and onto his shoulders. As he walked down the aisle he was stopped by Ms. Ketchum.

"Uhm, we're going to eat out for dinner in a bit, how would like to join us for a while?"

The minister looked thoughtful as his eyebrows rose, but then as he looked to Ash and Misty holding hands he remembered something important. "I'm sorry dear Delia, I would but I almost forgot my wife is going to fix me a nice dinner when I get home tonight. She would kill me if I spoiled it," he chuckled slowly. "Well how about a rain check then?"

"Of course! You should invite your wife over to my house and let me prepare a meal for you both. Besides it's been so long since I've seen her," Delia answered.

He smiled. "Sure we love to take you up on that offer. I forgot how good your food was, since I haven't eaten it in so long, but as for the rest of you all take care and I guess I'll see you all again two weeks from now right?"

Everyone agreed and said goodbye to him as he left the church doors, thanking him once again for coming and expressing their hopes to see him soon. After that was all said and done everyone looked at each other wondering what to do next.

Finally Delia broke the hushed silence, "Well let's not sit here forever! How about lunch?" Everyone nearly leapt out of the church pews and hurried down the aisle, talking about different things that they had wanted. Ash and Misty followed behind them, still hand in hand, both slowly taking in the thought that the next time they would walk down the pathway together would be their first day as husband and wife. Ash sighed contently, and started to swing his and Misty's arms as they walked.

Misty turned to him curiously, "What are you thinking about?" She turned from him briefly as she bent down to carry Pikachu and his pillow.

"It's just…we never did get to practice that kiss," Ash answered.

Misty laughed and stopped to turn to him. "You're so cute." She bent towards him to give a small kiss on the lips. "Better?"

"Mmm, yeah it is," Ash began to walk again. "But on our wedding day I'm going to kiss you, and it's going to be like, a hundred times better!"

Misty laughed again as she looked down to the rodent in her arms. "Isn't he such a kid, Pikachu?"

"Am not, I'm twenty!"

"Well good for you, so am I, but you're still a kid." She began to smile, knowing what was coming next.

"Am not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

Pikachu groaned inwardly. Even after all these years, the more things change the more they stay the same.

* * *

"Misty! Dawn! I'm so glad you're here!" A brunette girl cried out as she ran up to her two best female friends. "I've been hoping you all would show up!"

She hugged Misty so hard she nearly fell backwards. "May, it's great to see you," Misty replied.

May smiled and hugged Dawn next in the same manner. "May you look great!" Dawn said as she hugged her back, "I hope you're ready for the grand festival."

"Oh I'm more than ready," May pumped her fists up in front of her. "I'm—Ash!" she stopped midsentence to hug her first best friend she met on her journey. "You've gotten so tall! I'm so glad you're here!" Unfortunately Ash doesn't have the balance of Misty or the grace of Dawn and fell on his back with May on top of him. Pain streaked his face for a moment but then he smiled softly, blushing a little as he noticed the position they were in.

"I'm exactly the same as I was last time you saw me, May, which was a few months ago…but I'm glad you missed me…"

"Well, Ash Ketchum, it may have seemed like only months to you, but after traveling with Drew for over a year now it's nice to see a face that's not so condescending!"

"So that's how I am huh?" A voice said from above them. May looked up in shock to see her boyfriend looking at her, a bit irritated and angry. May waved her hands in front of her and shook her head in efforts to explain her feelings that she didn't mean it in a hurtful way. Drew raised an eyebrow as he noticed Misty and Dawn walking over.

"I know you missed him and all," Misty said, her hands placed fiercely on her hips, "But could you get off my fiancé please?"

"Oh! Sorry Ash," May murmured. She stood up, helping Ash up as well, and walked over to Drew. "Anyway, I'm glad to see that you're all here to cheer us on. Well I have to get ready for my next match coming up, so I'll see you all later!" She ran off quickly, holding her head down as she passed in efforts to not make any eye contact with her friends.

"Uh, Drew, is she ok?" Ash asked.

"Well, to be honest, things have been a little tense between us lately. Maybe it's because of the stress of the competition, and I have been a little hard on her and her training," Drew sighed, shaking his head. "I'll have to apologize to her."

"Tournaments can be pretty stressful, especially when you're competing against your boyfriend," Misty said, "I hate to be in her shoes, after all what's worse than having your boyfriend as a rival?"

"That's true I hated it when Kenny and I had to compete against each other too, and it was even worse for us because we've known each other since we were kids," Dawn pouted. Her eyes then widened in surprise, realizing that she had forgotten something. "Oh no Kenny! I left him by the concession stand getting me a hot dog! I have to look for him! Nice seeing you again, Drew, good luck to you and May!" She then shot off like a rocket, all that could be seen was her shiny blue hair and a cloud of dust.

Drew chuckled, "She's such a little ball of energy."

"It's hard to control her at times," Ash remarked, his Pikachu nodding in agreement on his shoulder.

"Well we wish you good luck in the contest, Drew, and give our best wishes to May as well," Misty said. She took Ash's hand in hers. "We have to get to our seat before someone else does."

"I understand. I hope you both enjoy the contests and be sure to root for us, especially you Misty since this is your first time seeing all of this," Drew commented coolly, his mind already wandering to thoughts of May, and secretly wondering how she was doing.

"Yeah, I wish you both well, and we'll all meet up later on after the tournament," Ash said. Then Ash, Misty and Pikachu began to walk back to the seats of the stadium, waving to Drew and once again wishing him good luck.

"They'll be alright, right Ash? Drew and May I mean. They both seem nervous," Misty whispered to him as they were walking away.

Ash nodded, "Yeah, they'll be fine. They're probably just a bit on edge because chances are they might face each other again before the end of this contest."

Misty moved her head up and down in understanding, as if remembering an old tournament battle, but she refocused on her friends as she could hear the droning hum of the audience ahead of her.

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know what you think! Until next time...oh and about my OC people I wouldn't worry too much about them because they won't be seen again. Anyway see you next time!


	10. Chapter 10: Wedding Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I swear it keeps slipping my mind, it just doesn't seem like a love day to me. Anyway, I should warn you that this is my first time writing about weddings, since I never had one nor been to one, but I will try my best. I tried watching one of those reality wedding shows but it didn't really help much so I'm just going to wing this. Don't worry it won't be that much of a disaster! I don't think...

* * *

Chapter 10: Wedding Day

As it turned out Ash was right, Drew and May did face each other in the final round, and after a hard fierce five minute battle Drew had ended up the victor. The papers and reporters had clamored over the fact that Drew had finally had his revenge on a grudge match that started nearly six years ago, but the grass haired boy didn't care about how many rounds he won against her and honestly felt a bit bad for winning. May on the other hand, was beginning to feel that she really could be able to train better on her own—so that the rumors of her needing Drew would finally stop—but had trouble figuring out what this meant for them as a couple. It was true that they needed a long discussion, but it would have to wait, for today was the day May had been looking forward to for months. She didn't say it to Drew, but she couldn't help but be excited to see her first wedding, and a wedding of her two best friends made her even more excited.

May yawned as she crept to Misty's room. Her and her friends were all staying in a hotel in Pallet, celebrating for Misty's bachelorette party, but they seemed to have had a little too much fun. As she stumbled inside, she nearly laughed out loud at the sight. Dawn was curled up in a ball a few feet away from the door, only being covered by her bra and underwear. Daisy, Lily, and Violet were crashing on the large brown sectional in the middle of the floor, covered with May could only imagine to be all the blankets and sheets in the room. May could only make them out by their hair and respective feet dangling from underneath the mass of fabric. She looked around to see paper and food all around on the floor and tables, and a bunch of other women May remembered were Misty's cousins in different corners of the room. She finally reached Misty's room and stepped inside. She was a bit surprised Ash wasn't in the bed with her, as she remembered how Misty had gotten drunk and wanted Ash the entire night.

She giggled, noticing that someone took the opportunity to draw a mustache and glasses on her face while she slept. It was true, her sisters had all of the sheets, but at least Misty had a pillow and was somewhat decent in her blue lingerie Lily had bought her the night before. May shook her gently and whispered, "Misty…Misty wake up dear."

Misty only moaned and turned over. May realized this might be a bit hard, and almost wished she had Pikachu with her. Nevertheless, she bent back down and tried again.

"Misty wake up!" She shook the bed a little, but just as before no response. May sighed and put her hands on her hips. It was almost 7am and she needed a strategy to get everyone up so they could get ready by 11am, which was the time the wedding would start. She also needed to get ready herself, knowing that her yellow shorts and white tank top wouldn't be enough for a fancy wedding. Eyes filling with determination, she thought of an idea.

"Misty! Misty wake up! Ash is here!" she yelled as loud as she could.

At this moment Misty shot up like a mouse trap being sprung. She looked around frantically. "What? Where? Where is he? Huh?" She looked to see May's smiling face above her.

"Good morning!" she said happily.

"Ugh, darn May I thought it was actually Ash…" she brought her arm up and ran her fingers through her messy bed hair. "What time is it? Gosh my head hurts, like I just got hit by a freight train."

"Well," she looked at her left wrist, "According to my nonextistant watch it's time for you to wake up. I know it has to be at least 7:15 by now." She smiled as she heard her friend's groan. "Now c'mon, I hate mornings just as much as you do, but you do want to get married don't you?"

Misty grinned. "Alright I'll get up. Just help me with the other girls, I think they'll need more convincing."

Around the same time, another group of friends were in the same hotel, and a young man was on his way to wake a friend up for the exact same wedding. His short black hair danced along his face although it seemed a little naked without his headband, but he figured he would comb it down well enough to cover any trace of marks from the constraint. He knocked on his best friend's door, but after a moment of silence he opened it. He could only assume Ash was sleeping peacefully under the assortment of sheets and comforters, for his face was covered as well so it couldn't really be known.

Tracy sighed and walked over to his bed, and prepared to wake Ash up under any means necessary. After all, he couldn't lose his bet with Brock that after all the drinks Ash had he would never be able to wake up on time. But in order to make sure he didn't lose his twenty bucks he had to wake him up quickly, so he wouldn't get caught.

He placed his hands on the bed and shook it as hard as he could. "Ash, Ash wake up," he whispered.

Ash moaned but rose quickly and motioned for Tracy to stop shaking the bed. "Ugh, Tracy I have such a headache. I'm never drinking again."

"Hmph, that's what Brock said too after the third shot of vodka, but he kept on drinking. Now get up you two," he said as he saw Pikachu crept out from under the covers. Ash slowly got up and looked around him.

"Usually Brock wakes me. Let me guess, you two have a bet going don't you?" Ash chuckled at Tracy's shocked look, "Well after all this time it's easy to guess. You guys betted on Misty and I getting together, and when we would get married, heck I could even bet that you two have a bet on when we're going to have a baby don't you?"

Tracy's eyes widened but then they casted down in embarrassment and a little shame. "I got five years after today, Brock has two."

Ash laughed and shook his head. He scratched Pikachu in his favorite spot behind the ears, and giggled as his little paw flinched in satisfaction. "Well lucky for you, Misty doesn't want children right away, but hope that Misty doesn't find out about your bet. She might want a kid just to spite you."

Tracy laughed as Ash got up and stretched a little. Pikachu did the same, and the young pokemon watcher smiled at how alike Pikachu and Ash were. "Well come on, we better get ready if we want to get to the church by 10:30."

* * *

The church seemed a lot larger than Misty remembered. All the walls and statues were decorated with yellow and white flowers, connected by thin white fabric that looked like waves of an ocean. Misty felt the red carpet under her feet, and for a little bit she felt better, at least until her sister Lily came by and yelled in her ear.

"Misty, what are you doing out here in the aisle?! Don't you realize Ash could come here any minute and see you?! You're supposed to be upstairs getting ready!"

Misty narrowed her eyes and turned to face her sister, "I'm not even in my wedding dress yet and I wanted to see how things look! Quit yelling at me I already have a bad enough of a headache!" At this moment, as if sensing his cue, Golduck came out of his pokeball yawning. It was an awkward moment of silence as the duck pokemon looked from one sister to the other until Misty finally yelled: "Get back in your pokeball! If I want my headache to get worse you'd be the first I call on!" She shoved Golduck's ball out in front of her and watched the red light engulf her annoying water type.

Lily scratched her head. "You brought your pokemon to your own wedding? Who does that?"

Misty huffed and clinched a fist. "What kind of pokemon trainer wouldn't bring her pokemon wherever she went?! I'm going to get dressed." She stomped away, searching for more efforts to calm her nerves.

Lily sighed. "Man, talk about bridezilla mode."

* * *

"Bridezilla? What is that?" Ash asked his best friend and mirror image Ritchie as they were in Ash's hotel room. Ash was ironing his tux for the third time, after Brock noticed his half-done pants, while Ritchie was reading a magazine.

"It's a woman that gets really antsy before her wedding day. She's usually angry and fussy. Is Misty like that too?" The young man couldn't help but become bored watching his friend learn to iron, and went from watching Pikachu and Sparky play on the carpet floor, to watching a random tv program, and finally reading a random wedding magazine.

Ash sat his iron on its base and thought for a second. He placed his hands on his hips. "Huh. You know Misty hasn't been like that at all. In fact, she's been really calm. Actually she didn't even talk about the wedding much until like two months ago."

"Really? Why is that?" Ritchie wondered aloud.

Ash scratched his chin, instantly reminding himself that he had to shave when he got the chance. "Don't know. She didn't really talk about it so neither did I. I guess she didn't want to jinx it or something."

The young trainer smiled at his engaged friend. "You know what I think? I bet women don't even think of marriage that much until they find someone worth marrying. You must have been the first person to make her think of the future in that way, so that's why she didn't think about it until she finally realized it was actually happening."

Ash shrugged and got back to ironing out a stubborn wrinkle. "You should have been a psychiatrist. You must have missed your calling somehow." They both shared a laugh as Barry ran in the room, nearly tripping over Pikachu's tail in the process.

"What the—? Ash what are you doing in your boxers? Why aren't you dressed already?"

Ash looked at Barry confusedly, "Barry you do know we have about two hours left right? You're completely dressed and everything too…what are you going to do now?"

"Two hours?" the yellow hair boy repeated. "Aw man! I should fine you for this Ash! Now I got to be stuck in this sweaty suit forever!"

Ash shrugged again, slowly getting frustrated over his severely wrinkled pants, "No one told you to get dressed right away, Barry. Sorry about that."

The young trainer from Twinleaf sighed sadly. "Oh well. I guess a little of waiting wont hurt."

Ash raised his eyebrows, "Wow you actually want to wait for something? You're not sick are you?"

Ritchie chuckled and Barry rolled his eyes, "Well I guess I have to, since no one else is ready." He sat down next to Ritchie and looked from him to Ash. "Hey Ash is this your brother or something?"

Ritchie laughed. "No relation. I'm Ritchie, Ash's best rival from Kanto!" He held his hand out, which was shaken by Barry in an overenthusiastic way.

"Nice to meet you I'm Barry, Ash's best rival from Sinnoh!" He placed his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling. "Say what time does this start again? I'm beginning to get bored."

Ritchie was about to answer when he heard Ash yell from behind him. "Done!" Ash shouted, holding up his pants for the world to see.

"It's about time…he was never good at the simple things…" Ritchie murmured to Barry, who began to laugh loudly.

"I heard that!" Ash replied back. He then showed off his pants to Pikachu and Sparky. "What do you think boys? Did I do a good job or what?"

"Pipika pika Pikachu pikapi?" Pikachu asked, pointing at the fabric in Ash's hands.

"What do you mean it looks really flat?" Ash repeated. He turned around to look at them, but was startled by Brock's laughing in the doorway.

"Ash what do you do? How much starch did you spray on those pants? It's flatter than a pancake!" The doctor breeder in training walked up to Ash and took them from him. "How on earth are you going to get in these?"

"I didn't spray any starch on them…at least not a whole lot anyway…" he murmured, "There were just wrinkles that wouldn't come out so I had to rub it a little…"

Brock tried to shake the pants loose from its forced state but no avail. "Ash, these pants are so stiff it's like someone had glued the linings and put wood in the legs so they would never move freely again!"

Ritchie laughed again, "Only Ash can iron pants so much that they look like they could stand up on their own."

Barry sighed and shook his head, "Shame, if only I had gotten here earlier, I would have had them ironed out in two minutes flat!"

"Of course you would," Ash mumbled under his breath. Pikachu heard this remark and began to laugh. Ash smiled, "Well I guess I have no pants now. Good thing I didn't rent them like I wanted to."

Brock laughed to himself, still holding up the board stiff pants, "Don't worry, I'm sure I can fix this…somehow…just stay put, or better yet, see if Tracy has an extra pair I guess. I'll be back soon."

Ritchie and Barry laughed at Ash's misfortune, causing the young master to roll his eyes with a yawn. "Whatever. It would have been better if Brock just did them at first like I asked him to."

Barry stood up now, shaking his legs to prevent them from falling asleep. "I don't think I ever sat for this long, and now I'm so bored! Ash let's have a battle!" He replied pointing at his rival.

"Barry all I have on is boxers and you have a suit on. You want to battle now?" Ash answered back.

Ritchie stood up as well now. "Well I do have to admit how bored I am as well, but I think a battle would just make you guys dirty, besides the wedding is in only a couple of hours can't you wait until then?"

"No way!" Barry replied. "After the wedding is the reception and then Ash is going off on his honeymoon! I can't wait it has to be now!"

"But—" Ritchie tried to answer back but Ash cut him off.

"It's ok, Ritchie, I know Barry and he is persistent. I guess I'll battle him real quick," Ash said, getting into a shrugging mood once again.

"Ha, you act like you're going to win automatically! Just you wait, Ash, I've gotten really good, you'll see!"

Ritchie sighed as he followed both men out of the room. _Oh well, I guess things never change._

* * *

Misty sighed as she squirmed in her seat. "I guess some things never change."

"What do you mean, Misty?" Dawn asked. Her and May were assigned to be in charge of Misty's nails and hair, despite the fact that Lily and Violet had originally wanted to do that task.

Misty sighed again to control her anger. "I originally had asked Lily and Violet to do all this for me, since they always complain about the way my hair looks, but on the day they're supposed to do it they claim they rather do their own hair than mine. Just when I think that those two are finally growing up, they show me how immature they really are."

"Don't worry about it Misty, we don't mind making you look beautiful, right May?" Dawn smiled happily.

May was sitting near Misty's knees starting to file Misty's nails. "Of course not! After all we are your best friends, why wouldn't we?"

"Thanks you guys, at least it's nice to know that I can count on someone. By the way, have any of you seen Ash?" Misty asked. Both women shook their heads, making Misty's heart flutter a little.

"Are you getting nervous Misty?" Dawn asked.

Misty thought for a moment. "Not really. I mean being married shouldn't be that hard right? I hate to have to spend every day worrying about how to be a great wife or something. Or try to impress Ash by cooking something new every night, or trying to figure out how to support him when he goes on his journeys."

"Yeah, you do all that stuff already! And you always hit him when he gets out of line, so I'd say you're perfect!" May mentioned, causing the other women to giggle.

"Aw, come on, I'm not that bad am I?" Misty asked.

She heard Dawn giggle behind her. Dawn picked up the curling iron and began twisting Misty's hair into tight curls. "I remember this one time when Ash was talking about you on our journey he showed us this bruise on his leg from when you had kicked him."

"That's nothing," May said. "Before Misty had came to see us for the Togepi festival Ash had showed us this bump on his big toe from where Misty stomped it. Ha, ha, it looked like it was still swollen and everything!"

Misty sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well we have to be honest here, since when has Ash done anything that doesn't deserve a smack on the head? I guess I have been hard on him for those years, but I only wanted him to do well…and grow up a little. Plus I was in a hard emotional phase in my life when I got mad at almost anything. Now that I think about it, how did he even put up with me? I was such a…"

"…a bitch?" Dawn finished.

"I was looking for a word that wasn't an obscenity but I guess I'll take what I can get," Misty answered with a small giggle.

"Hmm, maybe it was love?" May suggested.

Misty answered that with a snort. "Ha, love for Ash? Back then? Ash was as dense as a cucumber!"

"But I like cucumbers," May said with a smile. "Besides Ash could grow up when he wants to, after all he did when he asked you to marry him."

"True, I never thought he would do that in a million years," Misty said.

"Did what did you think he was going to ask then?" Dawn asked.

Misty took a moment to think again. "Honestly I had no idea. I thought he was acting weird, but I was thinking he just wanted me to see the sunset with him."

"Drew and I would watch the sunset all the time," May murmured. "He would always take me in his arms and hold me for the longest time. Sometimes I would even fall asleep because it was just so warm and comfortable."

Misty smiled. "It sounds like Drew really loves you a lot, May."

"You think so?"

"Of course!" Dawn answered. "I had heard Drew talking about you the other day to Kenny, and he sounded really sweet and gentle."

"What did he say?" May asked next. She watched the younger blue haired girl sway her hips a little, as if dancing to nonexistent music.

"Well, since I wasn't really supposed to be listening I don't remember everything, but I know he said something about how you look really good in those long tight jeans you wore one time."

Everyone laughed and May followed it with a sigh. "Ugh, men!"

"Well you should feel a little happy about that May," Misty said. "He thinks you're good looking so he pays attention to you."

"I guess, but Drew is a bit secretive when disclosing his feelings for me sometimes," May said. "Sometimes I wish he was a bit more open with me."

"Don't worry, Ash is like that too, but I think it's the little ways they show they love you that makes it all worthwhile," Misty said. "Besides if they don't show us love when we want them to, we can always slap them across the head a few times…"

May and Dawn laughed at Misty's joke, not knowing that Misty was being partly serious.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of hard work, and getting dressed himself, Brock was finally done with Ash's pants. They were back to being old and fluffy as usual, with only a couple of wrinkles, but Brock shrugged it off and folded them up neatly. He placed them on his arm and proceeded back to Ash's room to alert him of the good news, but was surprised when he entered to find the room empty.

"Ash?" He looked around a bit, only to find a box of half eaten pizza. He was about to call his name again, when he heard voices from the window.

"Pikachu, volt tackle!"

"Pika!"

"Pikachu?" Brock whispered. He walked over to the window and was somehow not surprised to see a battle going on between Ash and Barry. Pikachu and Barry's Empoleon were going head to head, but the little mouse was pushing back Empoleon with all its force.

"C'mon Empoleon don't let that Pikachu beat us!" Barry yelled. Empoleon dug its webbed feet into the ground and began to push back.

"Alright Pikachu, finish it off with a—"

"Ash!" Brock yelled, causing the fight to pause completely. Ash jumped, being scared out of his inner focus, and looked up to see Brock looking down on him.

"Brock! Hey what's up?" Ash said.

"What's up? You're out here battling in the middle of January with nothing on but boxers! What are you thinking?" Brock replied.

Ash blushed slightly. "Well, I was afraid I would get my shirt dirty, so I just came out here like this. It's really not that bad out here once you move around a bit."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're little audience over there is saying the same thing," Brock said, pointing to a group of women giggling a few feet away.

Ritchie laughed, "Yeah, they've been giggling ever since this match started." He stood in between Ash and Barry, serving as the referee at Barry's persistence.

"Well anyway," Brock continued, "Your pants are here. Come on and get dressed already, you don't have much time left."

"Oh right!" Ash exclaimed. "C'mon Pikachu." Pikachu replied obediently and followed his trainer inside, much to the dissatisfaction of his opponent.

"Hey! What about our battle?!" Barry complained.

Ash looked back while going inside. "Oh yeah, let's just call that a draw, ok?"

"A draw?! Why you—I ought to fine you for that Ash!" Barry sighed and returned Empoleon to its ball.

"Hey, I'll tell you what, Barry, how about you and I have a battle later on," Ritchie suggested, feeling a bit bad for the rambunctious trainer.

"Really? Alright! Ash's twin brother would be easy as cake!" Barry cheered and then ran inside like a rocket.

Ritchie followed yelling, "Hey who said it would be easy? And Ash is not my twin brother!"

Seven long minutes later, Ash got on his pants, although he was not all too happy about the results. Ash huffed as he placed his hands on his hips. "Aw man, look at this! I can't wear these pants!"

He heard Ritchie and Barry snickering in the background. "Looks like you're going to be in a rock concert," Ritchie commented.

"At least Misty would like it when she sees you as she's coming down the aisle." Barry laughed.

"Yeah I guess she would, but my mom wouldn't. I can just hear her voice now: Ash Ketchum you take off those pants right now, mister!" Ash imitated his mom's voice almost perfectly, creating a nasal like voice by using his two fingers to pinch his nose. Brock laughed, much to Ash's displeasure. "Brock this is your fault! My pants are so tight my legs can't breathe!"

"Hey don't blame this on me," Brock replied. "I'm not the one who screwed up the ironing."

Ash sighed. "Well I guess I have no choice…I'm calling mom!" At seeing his friends confused looks he elaborated, "What you think this is the first suit I ever wore? I'm sure my mom could find some extra suit pants for me somewhere. I just hope she hasn't gone to the church yet." Ash sighed again and walked over to the videophone by the window.

"I hope not, otherwise you really would have no choice but to go with what you have," Brock said. At this moment, Tracy walked in, placing a small flower in his vest pocket.

"Hey guys…woah Ash, you look like you're going to a rock concert or something."

"That's what I said!" Ritchie said with a smile.

"We're working on it…" Brock assured the young pokemon watcher.

"Hey mom!" Everyone turned toward the sound of Ash's voice.

Delia appeared on the screen, her hair held high in a tight bun, half of her makeup on her face, and her white dress shimmering in the sunlight of the living room window. "Hi honey! Oh, don't you look so cute in your suit! You're so adorable!"

Ash slightly rolled his eyes as he heard the men snicker behind him, "Mom, I got a bit of a problem. See I sort of messed up my pants this morning and I was wondering—"

"Oh Ash, even after all these years you still can't iron correctly?" Delia interrupted.

"Wow you got it perfectly," Brock stated. "How did you know?"

"I taught Ash how to iron about five years ago," Delia answered. "I don't know if he wasn't paying attention or maybe he just didn't understand but he always burns his pants, the poor thing."

"Mom!" Ash yelled, blushing from his mother's babying.

"Well anyway," Ms. Ketchum continued, "Let me guess you want another set of pants right? Well don't worry, honey, I'll be on my way in three shakes of a Slowpoke's tail. See you all soon boys!"

"See you soon Ms. Ketchum!" everyone yelled, causing Ash to blush yet again. After that the call was ended, and waiting was all that could be done.

"Well, while we are waiting I might as well tie my tie on me," Brock said.

"Yeah me too," Ash forgot about his tie in all the pants drama, and grabbed them from the doorknob they were hanging on.

"You do know how to tie it, don't you?" Brock asked.

Ash scoffed. "Of course I do! Just watch!" He turned around from his friends, and they could only look on curiously as they saw the red flash wrap around his neck. Pikachu stood in front of Ash, looking at his master expectantly. Ash smiled and turned back around. "Ta-da! See you guys it's so super easy I didn't even need to look!"

Barry and Ritchie laughed again at the sight, while Tracy smiled and slightly shook his head. Brock sighed, "Ash it's a tie, not a bandana." Ash had successfully tied the cloth around his neck, somehow missing his shirt collar completely, and tied it in a perfect knot.

"Ash this isn't the boy scouts you know, you don't have to try so hard," Tracy mentioned. He walked over to him and gently untied the knot. "It's all about relaxation, don't think so much, and at least get it around your shirt collar."

Brock laughed. "Well at least the 'don't think so much' part will be easy enough for him." Everyone laughed at this, causing Ash to roll his eyes again.

"I think you all hang around Misty too much," he commented.

"Aw come on guys, it is his wedding day, Ash is just nervous that's all." Tracy defended. Ash smiled back at him gently as Tracy finally finished the tie. "See all done! That wasn't so hard at all."

"Thanks Tracy," Ash said. "Thank you all of you guys really. It means a lot that you all are here with me, even Kenny, Drew and Gary who wanted to get the church early, still I'm glad that we're all here. You guys really are good friends."

"Oh enough with the sappy stuff already," Barry said, "Besides weddings are really fun anyway."

All the men nearly jumped when they heard a tap on the window. Ash and the others rushed to the sound to see Delia waving at them from outside.

"It's mom!" Ash said. He opened the doors of the window to see his mother sitting on top of a large silver bird. It squawked as its way of saying hello, its proud red and silver wings sparkling in the sunlight.

"Wow, your mom is so awesome," Ritchie commented. "Where did you get such a strong looking Skarmory, Ms. Ketchum?"

"Oh well that's a long story dear," Delia waved him off. "Professor Oak let me see my beautiful Star again yesterday and we had so much fun. I decided to take her around with me a bit and since I know it would take even less time to get here by flying I decided to fly here! Oh it was so fun! There's nothing like feeling the wind in your hair again, just like old times. But anyway, here you all darling, I hope these pants still fit you—they were the only ones I could find that actually looked long enough for you!"

Ash smiled and went in the room to change while the others couldn't stop complimenting Delia's Skarmory, or Star for short. A few minutes later Ash happily came out, his old suit pants fitting him just fine, and threw his newer ones in the garbage.

"Oh honey you look so cute!" Delia exclaimed as she quickly took a picture before Ash could shield his eyes from the flash.

"Aw, mom a little warning would help," Ash laughed as he rubbed his eyes.

"Oh I'm sorry, but say cheese!" She said quickly, just as she was taking another picture of him.

"Mom!"

"Oh alright, I'll take more at the wedding." Delia giggled. "Well then I'm off, I shall see you all soon!"

"See you soon Ms. Ketchum!" everyone yelled and waved as they watched the retreating figure soar off into the clouds.

* * *

Meanwhile a beautiful bride was also staring into the clouds, beginning to become immersed in her daydream, when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she replied softly, still staring out the window.

Misty's sisters crept into the room, silently fearing a tongue lashing from their younger sister, but became awestruck by the way she looked in her wedding dress.

"Wow, Misty…" Daisy whispered. At this Misty turned around and smiled, then stood up and placed her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Well? I look good right? Honestly I didn't think I would able to fit into a satin mermaid gown but once I saw the ruffled skirt I knew I had to get it! Plus look at the embroidery—it looks like a heart! Isn't it cute?" Misty squealed.

Daisy laughed. "You look beautiful Misty. Why do you like ruffled dresses so much anyway?"

Misty nearly jumped in excitement. "Because it reminds me of the flow of water! I was so happy when I saw that the skirt part was light blue, I feel like I'm on the water!" She twirled in happiness, her long veil and curly orange hair trailing behind her. "Should I put on the gloves too?"

"Well you're going to need something to help you keep warm, since it is a sleeveless dress." Daisy turned to her younger sisters, "What do you guys think? Doesn't she look beautiful?"

Violet nodded in approval while Lily said, "I'm just still getting over the fact that she's in a dress. I never knew she had such good curves under those suspenders she used to wear…"

"I agree, it feels weird to see her look like a girl," Violet giggled.

"What did you say?!" Misty yelled.

"Oh don't mind them, Misty, they're just not used to seeing you in a dress that's all," Daisy said.

"What about all those stupid mermaid shows you made me do? I was in a dress then!" Misty mentioned.

"Yeah, but you also had a tail! Those don't really count…" Lily answered.

"Well anyway," Violet interrupted Misty from going on a rampage, "I think you look beautiful, Misty. Just like mom did on her wedding day."

"Why do you have to compare her to mom? Why can't you just say that she looks like Misty?" Lily turned to purple-haired woman.

Violet narrowed her eyes. "Because that would be defeating the whole purpose of a comparison, idiot!"

Lily was about to retort back but Daisy interfered, "Enough you two! Anyway, Misty, you look very well, but we have to go for a bit now. We have about an hour and a half left so we'll come back for you when everything is ready."

"Okay, Daisy, thanks," Misty nodded and sat back down, chuckling to herself as she heard Lily and Violet arguing down the hallway.

She sighed and turned back to the window. Slipping her gloves on, she indeed felt a bit warmer as they reached all the way to her elbows. "Why do I have to be stuck in here for a whole hour?" she murmured. Her attention then turned to a flickering light in the sky. Her curiosity getting the best of her, Misty quickly wrote a note to her sisters explaining that she would be back soon and slowly crept out of her room. Little did she know that as soon as she closed the door, wind from the open window rushed in, sweeping the paper to the ground.

* * *

About thirty minutes later, Violet and Daisy were in Daisy's room, where Violet was still undecisive over what type of lipstick to wear.

"Do you think Kai would like it if I wore red lipstick or should I try a different color? Maybe pink or white? Should I just go random and pick yellow? What do you think, Daisy? Daisy…?" Violet looked to her sister, who was once again lost in thought, and had been combing her hair for about five minutes.

"Daisy!" Violet yelled.

Daisy jumped in surprise. "Oh I'm sorry Violet, were you saying something?"

Violet sighed and raised her eyebrow. "Are you alright sis?"

"Huh? What do mean I'm fine," Daisy replied.

"Well you don't seem fine, you seem like, completely spaced out," Violet observed. "Are you sure there's nothing wrong? I would like to help you if there is something wrong."

Daisy stared at the carpet beneath her. "Well," she breathed, "It is something that I have been thinking about…"

Just when Daisy was going to continue, Lily came through the doors, her troubled face showing her distress. "Guys we have a problem!"

"Ever hear of knocking Lily?" Violet turned to her, nearly yelling in the process.

Lily shook her head. "There's no time for that! This is really bad!"

Daisy looked to her now. "What's wrong Lily?"

Lily took a deep breath in efforts to calm herself. "I can't find Misty."

* * *

I'm sorry if I got a little off on people's characters in this, but I think it turned out fine. I'll try to post the last chapter later tonight if I can!


	11. Chapter 11: Marry Me If You Can

Gah I'm sorry it took me so long to post this! Long story short this was hard to write for me, but I finally did it! I'm so happy this story is over but I'm a little sad because it was really fun to write this. Oh well, maybe I can think of something else. I beg all of you to critique my writing! I can't get better unless I get more replies! You can say I suck for all I care, I'm not a professional only practicing. But anyway I have a couple more ideas in my head for stories so once I get in the mood I shall write again! Enjoy and thank you all for reading!

* * *

Chapter 11: Marry Me If You Can

"What?!" the screams of Misty's older sisters filled the hallway.

"What do you mean you can't find her?" Daisy repeated.

"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Violet yelled.

"I would have but someone told me to knock on the door and waste time!" Lily yelled back.

"Now come on you two," Daisy got up now, her flowing hair remarkably straight for the first time in years. "Let's take this slow. Now Lily, are you sure she was nowhere to be found once you left her room?" Lily nodded, and Daisy continued, "Alright then, the logical thing to do would be to look for her. Since this church is kind of big, and if she went outside we wouldn't know our way around, I suggest that we split up. Try to find the other girls, and see if they have seen her. Remember try not to get lost, and also remember that we are on a time limit here, we have like only an hour to find her so let's do our best—and no fighting ok?"

Lily and Violet nodded again, and they left from the small room, giving some time for Daisy to look in the mirror. "Why is my hair so straight?" She didn't usually like it straight, but settled for it under the circumstances. She shook her head a bit. "At least it's still curly on the ends. Alright, time to find my little sister."

Daisy ran out into the hallway and ran straight ahead, hoping she would run into someone along the way. Sure enough, the first people she saw were Kenny and Dawn, coming up the stairs and heading into their respective rooms.

"Dawn! I'm so glad I ran into you!" she sighed happily.

"Daisy…wow your hair looks different, did you straighten it? It came out really well," Dawn noticed.

The blond smiled. "I sort of did it by accident…but that's not what I wanted to say. I was wondering if any of you have seen Misty?"

Both Dawn and Kenny shook their heads. "We just came from outside and we didn't see her at all," Kenny said. "Is there something wrong?"

"Not yet," Daisy confirmed, then with a bit of a sigh she ran down the steps, taking care not to trip on the way down.

"You don't think anything is wrong do you?" Dawn asked.

Meanwhile Lily had found May and asked her to help search for Misty. Little did May know that she would end up searching all the rooms on the west side of the church by herself, while Lily stood and gave her orders from time to time.

"Are you sure she isn't outside?" May asked after looking into the fifth room. Lily sighed tiredly.

"What do you mean? I'm looking down the hallway…"

May sighed and narrowed her eyes. _So this is what Misty has to put up with…_

Violet, on the other hand, found herself completely distracted while looking for Misty. She somehow ran into Kai, and stared dreamily into his face so much that she completely forgot what she was doing in the first place.

Kai smiled innocently. "What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?"

Violet giggled. She always felt like a school girl when she was around him. "Nothing, nothing. Just me…" she reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

Kai laughed. "You're adorable you know that right?" Violet giggled again, and nodded sheepishly, her mind drifting further away.

Daisy found herself outside, looking around frantically. She wanted to yell out Misty's name, but at fear that someone else would hear it, she kept quiet. The January air draped across her bare arms. She shivered and attempted to rub them a little.

"She wouldn't really leave would she?" she whispered to herself. Her mind faintly trailed back to a conversation she had with Misty just last week.

**"So Misty, are you nervous about the wedding? Around this time next week you won't be single anymore," Daisy replied. She sat down in a chair next to the kitchen table. Misty was cooking rice for dinner on the stove and had her back turned.**

**Misty turned around and looked at her older sister. "Well, to be honest…I'm terrified. It scares me, since I've never been married before. I don't know what to expect or what Ash would expect of me. But then, when I started to think about it more, Ash doesn't really know any more than I do. He might be just as scared and nervous as I am. When I think about that, I don't feel so nervous anymore. It feels a little cruel to think that way, but I rather feel that I'm not alone in this."**

**Daisy smiled. She never felt prouder of her younger sister, especially after going through all that she had gone through. "You're not alone, Misty, I bet plenty of women feel this way. Don't worry you'll do fine. You're a good person so you have to be a good wife as well."**

**Misty laughed. "Thanks Daisy that made my day." She smiled warmly and then continued cooking.**

**Daisy placed her hands on her chin and leaned forward onto the table. _Misty is so lucky…I wonder if I will ever come across the same good fortune…_**

She shook her head to snap her out of her daydream. _No! Misty wouldn't leave like that! Sure she had cold feet, but Misty's never the kind of person to just get up and run away._

She searched around a bit more, and came across a small lake that was shadowed by a large cherry blossom tree. Underneath the tree, Daisy noticed part of a white dress sticking out from the blossom pedals on the ground.

"Misty!" she ran happily around the bark, to see Misty sleeping peacefully at the base of the tree. "She was sleeping all this time?" She looked around a bit more, but only saw a flock of Pidgey flying from the top of a tree a few feet away. Daisy knelt down and shook her. "Misty…Misty…Misty!"

Misty jumped nearly six feet in shock. "What the—? Daisy what are you yelling for! You scared me half to death!"

"Hey I was trying to wake you for your wedding! Don't be so snippy!" Daisy yelled back. She got back to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. "We were looking all over for you! You had us worried sick!"

Misty's face turned from angry to sentimental. "Oh Daisy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you guys worry. Hey but wait, didn't you get my note?"

"Your note?"

At this Daisy and Misty turned around to see Lily, May and Dawn rush up to them. "Oh thank goodness you found Misty. We were so worried," Lily said.

"I'm sorry," Misty stood up now, staggering on her heels, "I thought for sure you that you guys would get my note. I said that I would be going outside if anyone needed me, and if I'm not back in a little while to come look for me out here. Maybe it fell on the floor or something."

"I knew it! See I told you, Lily, Ms. Ketchum said she saw Misty out here when we ran into her. She said Misty was complimenting her Skarmory," May said.

"A note? The note!" Lily realized. "Oh man, that must have been what was on the floor! I thought it was trash and I didn't see any writing on it so I just picked it up and threw it away! I must have been looking at the back the whole time…"

Everyone laughed while Violet's voice rang from behind Lily. "You mean to tell us that you knew this whole time and you had us all looking for like an hour?!"

Lily's eyes narrowed as she turned around. "How could I have known? I thought it was just a random piece of trash on the floor so I just threw it away. Weren't you listening?"

"You didn't think it was strange that a piece of paper was on the ground when you walked into Misty's room?" Violet yelled.

"Yeah, that's why I called it random!" Lily yelled back. Once again the two feuding sisters were in a staring match until once again Daisy intervened.

"Alright you two that's enough. Besides, none of that matters now. We found Misty, and now we can continue on."

"I didn't make everyone wait did I?" Misty asked.

"Nah, we found you with about twenty minutes left to spare," Dawn answered.

"Oh wow Misty look you're covered with cherry blossom pedals! You look so cute!" May nearly squealed at the sight of Misty in her white dress covered by light pink and white pedals.

Misty noticed this and tried to shake them off, but Lily stopped her. "Hold on that can add to the scenery! Those pedals add a nice touch to you." She reached up and shook a low lying branch, scattering even more pedals on her.

"Lily! Come on they're going to get in my hair now!" Misty protested.

Lily only laughed. "I don't think so. Besides, you smell better now with them on you."

"What?!" Misty lunged forth at Lily but she darted away at the last second. "Let's see how you smell after I kick your—"

"Misty!" Daisy interrupted. "Come on, it's my job to get you to the altar and I swear I will if it kills me." She grabbed her hand and pulled her along back to the church, despite Misty's protests to punch Lily in the face.

Once Daisy had led Misty inside everyone found that the minutes were slowly ticking away. May and Dawn were checking their hair one last time in the mirror. Drew sat in a chair next to Kenny and the fidgeting Barry, twirling a rose between his thumb and index finger. Misty's cousins had already taken their places in their seats in the pews, texting to their friends about how excited they were. Lily and Violet had finally stopped arguing and began to reapply makeup. Delia was talking to Ash's aunt Liza about how pregnant she looked for four months, and had predicted that she would have another boy. Brock, Tracy, and Ash were also getting ready to take their respective places, while Daisy was keeping Misty company in Misty's room.

Misty looked into the mirror again. Even she had to admit she never looked this beautiful, but she was more worried about saying her vows for Ash in front of everyone. She didn't want to admit this, but the nervousness was finally beginning to set in, and although she tried hard to stay focused she had forgotten all of her vows that she had written. Usually performing in front of a crowd never bothered her, but of course this was completely different. This wasn't acting, this was marriage, and in the end there is no script that Misty could just automatically memorize. She bit her bottom lip in anticipation, tapping her fingers on the desk in front of her.

"You look nervous," Daisy said, breaking the silence between them.

Misty flashed a brave smile. "Just anxious. I can't believe the day is really here."

"It did come too fast didn't it?" Daisy stood up from her seat, stretching a little.

Misty looked at her and frowned. "Are you alright Daisy?"

Daisy laughed a bit nervously, wondering why everyone was suddenly worried about her. "I'm fine. I'm just a little tired now after all this, and the wedding hasn't even begun yet!"

Misty shook her head. "That's not what I mean. You seem a little different, almost like you're in a distant world or something."

Daisy sighed and looked to her beautiful little sister. "Well, I've just been thinking that's all."

"About?" Misty questioned.

Daisy sighed again. "Well it's just, well I just cant believe that all of this is happening. I mean with you getting married, Violet and Kai going back to Unova, and Lily starting art school soon, I cant help but wonder what is going to happen to me? I'm not jealous, in fact I'm proud of you all, but now I just cant help but think what to do now. I wish I had some kind of clue."

Misty looked at her older sister, beginning to feel a bit bad for the blond water trainer. It reminded her of how she felt a few years back. Nodding she looked down at her hands. "I know how you feel. I felt the same way when you guys left on that trip around the world and I got stuck at the gym. Then Ash left on his journey and Brock ended up being with him. I felt a bit left out, like everyone was leaving me for their own lives. I also wondered what I should do next."

Daisy's eyes widened. "Really you felt the same way? Wow, I'm sorry Misty I had no idea. Well what did you do? How did you get through it?"

Misty continued to stare at her hands and watched her thumbs twiddle around one another. "Well, I mostly just thought of all the things I wanted to do in life. Something that makes me happy and something that I could be proud of later on. I realized that while traveling with Ash I somehow forgot the main reason I left in the first place: I wanted to be a great water pokemon trainer. So I began to train, and train, and train until I felt confident enough to say that I had achieved one of my dreams. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you also have to find what makes you happy. Find the one thing in life that you want to try to succeed at, and work at it. And don't worry, just because we are all moving on with our lives doesn't mean we can't see each other once in a while, right?"

Daisy smiled broadly. "Of course!" She ran up and wrapped her arms around Misty's body. "Thank you little sister, you're so wonderful." Misty smiled back and wrapped her arms around Daisy in return. They stood there for a few minutes holding each other close until they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Well then," Daisy replied, "That must be our cue." She linked her arm with Misty's and pulled her toward the door. "Alright, let's get you to that altar!"

* * *

Finally after months of preparation, the day had finally come. Ash couldn't help but get excited for this day, and in some ways he seemed a bit more excited than Misty. He stood anxiously at the altar, his legs swaying from side to side, his heart pounding in his ears. Although he could hear the music of the organ, everything seemed quiet when the women began to walk in, and it also felt like things had slowed down even further. May's steps were awkward and slow, Dawn's were a bit bouncy but restrained, Lily and Violet were both quick and short, but even those seemed as slow as molasses. Then, before he could even realize it, his breath hitched in his throat and he knew what was next as everyone in the audience begun to stand. Every eye locked on her. Her long beautiful dress, her flowing red hair, her slightly long light blue trail, her hands clutched tightly to her bouquet of bright red roses, and her small feet poking out from underneath her dress with each step. But her eyes were locked on him, and his eyes could see nothing but her.

At this moment, his body seemed to have a will of its own. Ash walked forward and grabbed her hands, rubbing them tenderly with his thumbs. As soon as the black haired man looked into his love's eyes, he was stunned by her beauty. So stunned in fact, that he had instantly forgotten all of his wedding vows, the very words he spent at least a month trying to write and remember. Ash didn't mind this too much however, he knew he was horrible at speeches and probably had a 40 to 60 chance of saying it right in the first place.

The minister of Pallet smiled sweetly at the two young lovers, and then motioned for the rest of the audience to sit, except for those in front around the bride and groom. He inhaled deeply and began by saying, "I would like to thank you all for coming to this joyous occasion. This is the day that we have all gathered to see such a happy moment for these two young people in the holy union of marriage. Now then, who is it that gives this woman away?"

"I do," Daisy said, almost in a whisper. She took her arm that was wrapped around Misty's and put her hand in Ash's. Daisy gave a warm smile to both of them as she sat down next to Violet.

Ash turned back to Misty, his mind swarmed in a million thoughts, and shook his head slightly as he gazed on her. Misty tilted her head. "What?" she whispered.

Ash began to blush like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I was just admiring your pedals," he chuckled as he used his head to point to a pink flower pedal on her left shoulder.

"Oh…" Misty brought her hand up to dust it off but it seemed like another pedal magically appeared in its place. "Lily thought it would be better if I looked like a cherry blossom tree."

"You were under that tree?" Ash whispered in a bit higher tone, "I love that tree! It's so comfortable I always fall asleep there!"

"I fell asleep under it earlier." Misty giggled. "It was a nice breeze."

"Aw lucky you, and you had gotten the best shade before it got too hot…"

"Ahem," the minister interrupted. "Are you both ready children?"

Ash and Misty began to laugh, embarrassed that they somehow forgot where they were. "Sorry, we're just a bit nervous," Misty explained. That didn't stop the others in the audience from laughing a little.

The old man smiled gently. "Well then, I must say that marriage is a sacred holy union, and it should not be taken lightly. It should be treated with the utmost reverence and respect and must be a mutual agreement between the both of you. You both must know that from this day forward your lives will no longer be faced independently, but as one, and you must make sure you are prepared for that. Now it is through this relationship that these two become one in holy matrimony, however if there is anyone here who objects to this, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

Misty nervously bit her lower lip, trying to calm her pacing heart. Ash kept thinking how cute she looked, and desperately tried to remember at least one vow he wrote. His heart nearly stopped when he heard the preacher continue, "I understand that the bride and groom have written their own vows. Which one of you would like to go first?"

They both looked at each other, stiff with fear, not knowing what to say. Meanwhile people began to giggle at the sight, the preacher looking from the bride to the groom, while Ash and Misty were trying to figure out how to get the other to speak. Before Misty could utter a reply Ash beat her to it: "Ladies first!"

Brock chuckled slightly behind him. _I bet Ash didn't even write his vows like he was suppose to._

Ritchie laughed inwardly. _Knowing Ash's luck he probably forgot what to say._

Barry sighed. _If it was me I would have said them already._

Misty suppressed a groan and tried to resist narrowing her eyes at him. _Damn, out of all the times now he chooses to be a gentleman._

Daisy smiled. _C'mon Mist, you can do this. Just be yourself and speak from your heart._

Misty took a deep breath. "Ash, ever since I met you, it seemed like you've always been a part of me. A part of my hopes, my wishes, my dreams, my future. You have been such a good part of me, and I loved all of it. And now, to see us standing here like this…it really makes me happy, happier than I have ever been. All the time we spent together, all the things we've been through, I'm glad to know that we have gotten here to this moment together too. Ash, you gave me hope for the future, and I always want you to be a part of it. I promise, here and now, to always make you a part of my future. I promise to love you with all my heart, and to comfort you, encourage you, and give you strength just like you have given me. I will give you all of me, and all that I am, and I promise this to you for as long we both shall live."

Dawn almost squealed out loud. _That was beautiful!_ She looked to her right to see May smiling, and wondered if she was thinking the same thing.

Ash smiled. He always knew how Misty felt, and although expressing feelings of love was a bit hard for her, she still knew what to say at all the right moments. Now as it was his time to speak, he held tighter onto Misty's hands for comfort.

"Misty, when I first met you I never imagined that we would be together like this. But throughout all this time that we spent together I realized that I loved to make you happy. I love to see your smile and hear your laugh and see your bright eyes sparkle like diamonds. I always want to see that in you, so I promise with all of my heart, here and now, to always try my hardest to make you happy. I promise to honor you, and respect you, and give you all of my love. I promise to give you all of me, and all that I am throughout both of our lives as long as we both shall live."

May smiled to herself, proud of her friends for finally taking the major plunge to be together. She glanced at Drew, only to realize he was looking directly at her. Once their eyes locked they both turned away, a slight blush forming on their cheeks. The minister nodded and began to speak again, "You have both accepted each other and the bond that you have between one another. Now present the rings please."

At this moment Pikachu came up to Ash's leg, trying to balance the rings on his pillow, but what Ash noticed was that one of his best friends and pokemon was crying.

"Aw, Pikachu," Ash murmured as he knelt down to it, "Why the tears buddy?"

Misty knelt down beside Ash. "Aw don't be so sad Pikachu, it's ok."

Pikachu began to mumble back through his tears and Ash began to smile in understanding. "Now it makes sense, that's why you've been quiet today huh? You think that since I'm marrying Misty you would get placed on the back burner?"

Misty shook her head and Pikachu slowly nodded. "There's no way we would do that to you, Pikachu, after all you were the reason we were always together in the first place! There's no way we would ever forget about you, or replace you. You're our best friend, Pikachu."

Pikachu smiled happily and jumped into Misty's arms, forgetting about the pillow he was holding in the process. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the sight, even the minister, who whispered something under his breath about crazy weddings. Luckily, Ash caught the pillow in the nick of time and saved the rings. After the brief hug, Pikachu jumped out of Misty's arms and sat on the pillow beside Ash's feet, looking up in curiosity.

After that the minister continued, "Now Ash place the ring on Misty's left third finger and repeat after me: This ring I give to you is a testament of my faith, love, and commitment to you."

Once Ash did as he was told the minister turned back to Misty. "Now Misty, place the ring on Ash's left third finger and repeat after me: This ring I give to you is a testament of my faith, love, and commitment to you."

Misty repeated the words, although her voice was a bit shaky, and the preacher nodded and continued once again. "Now that Ash and Misty have pledged themselves to one another through the sacred bonds of marriage, I hereby declare that by the power rested in me as the ordained minister of Pallet, and by the power of the Kanto region, I now pronounce you man and wife. Ash, you may kiss your beautiful bride."

Ash lifted Misty's veil, only to be greeted by the sight of Misty giggling. Ash laughed a bit as well, still confused over why she was giggling but he didn't really think about it too much. Misty was about to laugh again when Violet finally got impatient and yelled out: "Just kiss her already!"

This caused everyone to laugh hysterically, but Ash luckily didn't need to be told twice. He leaned forward and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Everyone began to clap, just happy that is was all over and done with, but then—from a secret compartment in the roof—a flock of Pidgey swarmed out and through the aisle of the church. Luckily all the doors were open so they wouldn't run into anything, except for a few windows.

"What the—?" Misty looked around and saw the hole in the ceiling. "How did that get there?"

"Well now, did you like my surprise little sister? I told you I wouldn't ruin it!" Lily stepped forward now, proud of her work.

"Wait, you did this Lily?" Ash asked.

"Of course! I told you the ending would be good, right? What's better than a flock of Pidgey soaring to the skies?" she placed her hands on her hips and closed her eyes, already in dreamland.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it," Misty answered, "There isn't any sky in a church! Did you put that hole in the ceiling?!"

"Well I needed somewhere to keep the Pidgey until they ran out of food…and they left at the perfect time too!" Lily giggled. Misty tapped her right foot to the ground, her patience running out again. Lily gulped loudly as Daisy whispered in her ear.

"You better run, she doesn't look happy."

Lily laughed nervously, then hauled toward the front of the church as quick as she could. Misty was about to follow, her trusty mallet in hand, when Ash stopped her. "Aw let's her make it this time, Mist, besides the hole isn't that bad and at least those Pidgey weren't dead by the end of all of this." He gazed back up at the ceiling in wonder, then back towards Misty as she realized there was a Pidgey resting on the top of her head.

"Ha ha ha, well would you look at that it looks good on you Misty!" Brock laughed, along with everyone else. The oblivious Pidgey continued to sit on Misty's head, beginning to nibble on a flower pedal in her hair.

Ash slowly reached out and petted the small bird. "You know I think this Pidgey might be a girl. In that case we could turn your hair into a nest and make a home for it!"

Misty huffed. "That's it!" A vein popped in her forehead as she began to chase Ash out of the church, her mallet not too far behind, the little Pidgey still hanging on to the strands of Misty's hair.

* * *

_Three months later…_

Ash was standing on one of the platforms of the Cerulean City gym, headlong into another practice battle with Pikachu and Totodile. "Alright, Pikachu, quick attack!"

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled out as it charged full speed towards the dancing Totodile.

"Totodile, dodge it by jumping into the water!" Totodile managed to do one last dance before it dove into the water, causing Pikachu's attack to miss completely.

"Good job Totodile! You're getting faster!" Ash replied. Totodile jumped back onto the platform, beginning to dance once again. Ash laughed and was about to give Totodile another attack when he heard Misty's voice from another room.

"Ash!" she yelled again, happily running into the gym area. "Guess what I have!" She waved a small white envelope in her hand, her light blue skirt following her motion.

"Well you seem pretty excited, must be a good thing right?"

"Of course!" Misty jumped onto a platform right next to Totodile, giggling as she saw it dance again. "It's the wedding pictures Todd took! You want to see?"

"Yeah I do," Ash said as he jumped onto another platform and held out his arm. "Toss them to me."

Misty laughed. "No way silly, knowing you they will fall into the water!"

"Fine then come over and hand them to me," Ash replied back.

"No!"

"What do you mean no?"

Misty winked playfully. "You got to catch me first!" She laughed and bounced on her platform a little.

"Catch you? That's so childish Misty." Ash smiled.

"C'mon Pokemon master let's see how much you have trained! Let's go Totodile help me out!" Misty smiled as the little croc pokemon jumped beside her.

"Fine then Pikachu will be my partner! Let's get them buddy!" Ash laughed as Pikachu flashed its cheeks in preparation.

"Let's do this!" Misty yelled out excitedly, thrusting her arm into the air. While she was running from platform to platform, trying to escape Ash's attempts to catch her, she couldn't help but think back to all that's happened over the past three months.

_Things seemed to finally settle down after the wedding was over with. We were lucky to get Todd to take pictures of us, since he's mostly famous for taking pictures of pokemon, but he was happy to do it because we all knew each other from way back when. The ceremony afterwards was nice, except for when Gary took a picture of Ash kissing my neck and wouldn't give it to Ash. Ash took forever to chase him down, until Gary stepped on Pikachu's tail accidently and got a thundershock for his trouble. Since we haven't been able to find a nice place to live here in Cerulean we decided to crash out here for a while. It all worked out since Violet left right after the wedding and Lily left for school a few weeks ago._

_Things are going well for Violet and Kai, and Kai even told me that he's thinking of proposing. I wished him good luck, since Violet probably won't be as flexible as I was when it comes to planning weddings. Lily already started school about two weeks ago and she's already complaining about everything. Daisy left a few days ago to set off her career as an actress on stage, which would be hard since she's never had proper training, but she said she had a connection somewhere._

_Meanwhile Dawn, who admitted to Kenny that she loved him the day of the wedding, is still traveling with Kenny through Johto today. They are too cute together. May and Drew are still together as well, although after much discussion and arguing, they decided to travel separately for a year to hone on their skills as coordinators. Brock is still going to school and is at the top of his class, but if only he can get a certain female breeder out of his mind he might be able to lose that dumb look. Brock met back up with Suzy by chance after viewing a seminar she was teaching. To my surprise Brock asked her out and she said yes. Why I will never know. Unfortunately, Tracy and his girlfriend broke up a little after the wedding, and no one still has no idea why. But when Daisy found out this bit of info she was a bit too happy about it._

_All of our other friends are doing fine as well, and they are still talking about how Ash and Brock had gotten drunk during the reception and did karaoke…badly. As it turns out Ash's aunt Liza did have a plan for Delia and Professor Oak to get together. I guess we'll never find out exactly what it was but so far it's working...they have been going out for a week now. When Ash found out about this he was speechless at first, but then mumbled something about marriage sucking because he would be related to Gary. I couldn't help but laugh. As for Ash and I it has been three great months since our marriage, three wonderful months I would never take back for the world._

She was broken from her train of thoughts as Ash grabbed her by the shoulder. "I caught you! Muhahaha! Now you will suffer the consequences of being caught by my hand!" Ash faked another evil laugh as Misty rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine, you win. Here take the pictures I'm starving anyway," Misty said with a mischievous smile. She knelt down to Pikachu and placed the envelope in his paws, while giving him a sly little wink that the small rodent understood easily. She stood back up and placed a hand on his chest. "Well then, congratulations for catching me!" With a slight push, she shoved him into the water, and placed her hands on her hips in satisfaction. Misty laughed. "Looks like you need more training! Let's go eat Pikachu!"

Pikachu happily agreed and joined Misty and Totodile as they walked into the kitchen. Ash came up a few seconds after, spitting water from his mouth. He sighed. "Just as usual, those two are always out to get me."

* * *

I hope you guys liked it, although honestly I'm not really happy about the ending, but I think it will work. I forgot to mention during the wedding parts I got stuck and had to listen to music to get back in the love mood. Mostly it was music from Final Fantasy 7, 10, and 13. Anyway I probably won't be able to write anymore until summertime, but who knows what the future has in store. See you soon!


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